From Uber to Temu: Why Every Brand Wants a Piece of the Super App Pie

By Sue Azari, eCommerce Industry Consultant, AppsFlyer

Super Apps combine shopping, banking, messaging, and more into one seamless mobile experience. These platforms are gaining traction globally and reshaping how consumers live, engage, and transact, particularly in mobile-first environments.

At the same time, brands are having to explore opportunities in new markets due to global economic shifts. Whether that be rising tariffs, geopolitical uncertainty, or growth plateaus in traditional markets.

A pattern is emerging, with mobile-first businesses pushing to expand beyond their home turf, not just for growth but to reduce risk. This emerging trend is known as internationalisation.

This is not a theoretical concept, but a real and active shift that we are already seeing play out. Brands are entering and testing new regions through mobile channels, especially in places where Super Apps have become the central gateway to mobile life. And for good reason. Mobile apps offer a fast, scalable way to reach new audiences, particularly where mobile commerce dominates.

Why internationalisation is a necessity

Internationalisation is no longer just a growth strategy. It is becoming a necessity. As trade restrictions increase and supply chains become more fragile, relying on a single market creates vulnerability. Regulatory shifts, currency swings, and platform volatility can all impact performance overnight.

Recent advertising patterns make this clear. In response to new U.S. tariffs, platforms like Temu and Shein adjusted their strategies and ramped up investment in other regions. Shein reportedly increased its ad spend by more than a third in the UK and France, while Temu boosted its budgets by 40% in France and 20% in the UK.

Expanding into new regions spreads that risk and opens access to mobile-first populations with advanced digital behaviours. In these markets, localising an app experience is one of the fastest and most effective ways to test, learn, and scale. The benefit is not just about protection. It is also about growth through diversification, reaching new audiences, unlocking cultural insights, and building relevance beyond your base market.

Moving towards integrated experiences

In many high-growth regions Super Apps are not just part of the consumer journey, they are the consumer journey. These platforms function as commerce, payment, and engagement ecosystems, often all within a single app.

Even in markets that are yet to fully embrace Super Apps, platforms are increasingly bundling services and moving toward more integrated, mobile-first experiences. For brands, this represents an opportunity to meet users where their digital lives are already converging and to shape that convergence in new regions.

Uber is a prime example. It has moved far beyond ride-hailing to offer food delivery, groceries, freight, and even financial services within a single interface. This expansion has helped power Uber’s advertising business, which surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue in 2023.

Success takes more than presence

For brands looking to expand internationally, Super Apps offer direct access to engaged, mobile-native audiences. But success takes more than presence. It requires thoughtful localisation aligned with local preferences, payment behaviour, and platform expectations. When brands get this right, they can scale faster and more sustainably across markets that might otherwise be disrupted by economic or policy shifts.

Super Apps offer reach, but they are not plug-and-play. Brands need to treat them as local infrastructure, shaped by how people shop, pay, and engage in each market. Success depends on designing for that context, not just adapting language or layout.

Measurement becomes a strategic imperative

As Super Apps bring together commerce, content, communication, and payments, they create both a challenge and an opportunity for measurement. The customer journey becomes more consolidated but also more complex. Traditional attribution models often fall short when interactions span multiple functions within one app environment.

At the same time, these platforms offer something rare. Because users stay logged in and conduct a wide range of activities within a single ecosystem, Super Apps create a unified stream of high-quality, first-party data. When managed responsibly, this data can offer brands a richer, more accurate understanding of what drives performance across the entire customer lifecycle.

But this opportunity requires a shift in how measurement is approached. Brands need to move beyond fragmented analytics and build a framework that accounts for the full breadth of user behaviour. This is not just about reporting. It is about harmonising data across channels and touchpoints to create a more complete view of impact.

For marketers operating inside Super Apps, measurement is no longer a technical task. It is a strategic imperative. The brands that win in this environment will be those that can gain from insights without compromising integrity.

Knowing where to grow

Super Apps deliver scale but also come with complexity. Closed ecosystems can restrict access to data and reduce flexibility. Platform dependency raises questions about control and long-term resilience.

But this is not a reason to hold back. It is a reason to engage strategically, with visibility, adaptability, and a clear approach to measurement and integration. Sustainable growth means knowing how to work within these environments while maintaining your own strategic independence.

Global expansion today is not about replicating what worked at home. It is about adapting, aligning, and operating with a deep understanding of where you want to grow next.

Super Apps are the future

Super Apps are not just a trend. They are becoming the infrastructure for mobile-first economies and the entry point to digital life in many parts of the world. 

At the same time, internationalisation is accelerating as brands seek new revenue, new users, and greater resilience. 

Those who succeed will not just be available in a region. They will localise with purpose, measure with precision, and deliver value within the platform experience itself.