TL; DR
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The Chinese WeChat app is insane.
It started as a simple messaging app that used Wi-Fi (a la Whatsapp) and then grew to include video conferencing, gaming, payments, location sharing, and a bunch of other features.
(With this we collect a whopping 1 billion monthly active users)!
At this point you’re probably thinking, “Is WeChat going to add crypto payments?” that’s a good guess… we tend to write about crypto in almost every article we write.
But no, our point is not so much about WeChat as it is about ‘Super Apps’.
This is what we’re talking about:
You know how that Telegram (TG) game, Hamster Kombat, now has over 250 million active users?
Well, it turns out that TG is taking an eerily similar path to that of WeChat (although WeChat was founded way back in 2010).
Hamster Kombat is technically a ‘mini-app’ within TG. And yesterday, a core developer from The Open Network (TON) said that TG mini apps are about to become much more complex.
This is due to two important factors:
First, it makes it easier to develop TG mini apps; and developers have seen the success of games like Hamster Kombat, which leveraged the existing ecosystem of over 900 million TG users.
Secondly (and this is the big one in our view) TON has just been integrated with the stablecoin, USDT – meaning companies can now offer digital goods and services using crypto pegged to the USD.
Furthermore, unlike Apple, which charges a 30% fee for in-app purchases, TG doesn’t charge anything.
Cool, so who’s ready to create a mini app?