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Grab and GoTo, southeast Asia’s biggest start-ups before their listings, took inspiration from the grandfather of superapps, Tencent’s WeChat. WeChat’s success gave birth to a similar revolution in the region from South Korea to Indonesia, where consumers suddenly gained access to services previously unavailable to them, including lending for millions of poorer consumers with patchy access to regular bank services.
“Covid gave GoTo and Grab supernormal growth,” said Angus Mackintosh, founder of CrossASEAN Research. “It accelerated their take-up. They still have a superapp model but have had to pare it back a lot. They cannot go out in the same aggressive fashion they used to. They have to make a profit.”
https://www.ft.com/content/415f96fe-6b0f-41a8-918d-557df7b70d10?stream=top
