Draft rules threaten to roil super-app plans for Tatas and Adanis

A draft rule on running retail online threatens to muddy the play for Tatas and Adani in India. The rule, if it goes through, bars “related parties” on the conglomerate's online marketplace-based platforms.

Both Tatas and Adanis have been testing the water with super apps. Super apps, first started in China, are all-in-one mobile-based software application on which one can perform a plethora of tasks without toggling out of it. They are closed ecosystems. Depending on the app, you can hail a ride, order takeaway food, shop online, book a hotel, buy cinema tickets, buy airline tickets, buy insurance, perform banking transactions, trade in the financial markets and the list goes on.

While Tatas have been testing out their super app on key stakeholders, including employees, Adani Enterprises, has laid out a plan to build an app that brings all its products and services together under one roof.


What is a related party?
A related party as per the rule book is as any corporate which is a holding, subsidiary or associate of such a body and has a common chain of shareholders and directors. This essentially means Tata will not be able to involve its group entities such as Titan and Taj, in its super app fold. It is the same for Adani Enterprises.

So Tatas will not be able to sell its own products - like Tata Salt - on its e-commerce platform like Bigbasket. Similarly, Reliance will not be able to host Hamleys on its e-tailing platform, JioMart. The rules also restrict super/normal apps from having sellers that share brand names.

A way out, according to legal experts quoted in a TOI report, may involve these conglomerates making a separate app for their own products and another for third party products.