Microsoft recently considered building a "super app" that could include shopping, messaging, news and web search services among others, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Windows-maker mulled building the app
to loosen the hold of Alphabet's Google and Apple on the mobile search space,
according to the report.
Microsoft executives wanted the app to also
boost the company's multibillion-dollar advertising business and Bing search,
as well as draw more users to Teams messaging and other mobile services, The
Information reported
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a
Reuters request for comment.
The report added that it isn't clear
whether the company would launch such an app, but Chief Executive Satya Nadella
has pushed for the Bing search service to perform better with the Teams and
Outlook.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who also
owns Twitter, has shown interest in building a super app named "X"
that would combine a multitude of services.
A super app, made popular in Asia by
Tencent Holdings' WeChat and South East Asia's Grab Holdings, has been
described as the Swiss army knife of mobile apps, offering a suite of services
for users such as messaging, social networking, peer-to-peer payments and
e-commerce shopping.
These mega apps are widely used in Asia
because mobile is the main form of access to the internet for many people in
the region, wrote Scott Galloway, a New York University professor of marketing
and co-host of tech podcast "Pivot," last year.
Chinese super app WeChat has more than 1
billion monthly users, according to one estimate, and is a ubiquitous part of
daily life in China. Users can hail a car or taxi, send money to friends and
family or make payments at stores.
In 2018, some Chinese cities began testing
WeChat for an electronic identification system that would be tied to users'
accounts, according to the South China Morning Post. © Reuters