Super-app Ecosystem in The Middle East: Careem

Vanshika Rai and Aditya Kshirsagar | Wed 23rd Mar, 2022

Careem started its services with ride-hailing in UAE in 2012 and having found Product-Market Fit gradually expanded it to Doha and Riyadh, around 2013. Today, they are present across 100 cities and 13 countries. They have become one of the leading multi-service platforms in MEA and are continuously growing with 48 mln total Careem users as of 2021.

2019 In 2019, they expanded into adjacent areas like food and grocery delivery.

2020 Uber acquired Careem’s mobility, delivery, and payments businesses across the greater Middle East region, with major markets including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Today They are super-app with a focus on

1. Mobility of People: Bike and Car facility for Careem customers where they can access the bikes via app or physically at one of the smart docking stations, book a cab from anywhere in the region.

2. Mobility of Things: Food, daily essentials, pharmaceuticals, deliveries, etc, is accessible to the users within one application

3. Mobility of Money: Customers can transfer money, pay bills, mobile recharge, etc. A safe, secure, and seamless payment

The platform includes mass transportation, delivery, payments, and many more and has become the region's everyday super app.

Careem is a hassle-free, one-stop solution for your daily needs.

Careem (Source)

The idea behind creating a super-app is to make it customer-centric with utmost security and loyalty. People can use the application in their daily lives as it directly targets the lifestyle of a customer. The app is specially tailored for the Middle Eastern Market, to make their experience on the app smooth sailing.

“Careem’s Super App supports acceleration by bringing together people’s essential, everyday services in one place, with a single sign-on and integrated payment system. We are tailoring products and services to local needs so that people with busy lives can get right to the services that are important to them when they need them,” said Mudassir Sheikha, Co-Founder, and CEO of Careem. (Source)

Careem Super-app Growth Some of the key stats of the super-app as per 2021 are

Careem growth

  • 4 out of 5 subscribers use more than one service on the Careem app.
  • Subscribers transact up to 22 times in a month
  • Most popular services are ride-hailing and food delivery
  • 8/10 customers are happy with Careem Care (customer service).

Careem Super-App features Careem has 11 services on their super-app which facilitates the lifestyle of a customer. The initial UI of the application was a basic map of a particular region, and now the Careem Super-App looks like this Careem Super-app

Key features:

1. Transport: Ride-hailing, taxi, delivering a parcel, etc.

2. Food: restaurant offers, discounts, food order services

3. Shops: General stores shopping, e-commerce platform, bundle offers, discounts, etc.

4. Recharge: mobile recharge of friends and families

5. Send Credits: payment transfer, P2P transactions, QR code, etc.

6. Additional features: clinical testing, Covid tests, Careem rewards for every penny spent on a completed ride or order with Careem. etc.

Careem super-app customer loyalty stands at 84% with 37 NPS which is better than its competitors.

“This year, we started simplifying the lives of people in more ways than just seamless transportation. More and more customers use Careem for multiple different daily needs, proving that the opportunity to simplify people’s lives with the convenience of one app is huge and we are just at the beginning of our journey.” said Mudassir Sheikha, CEO, and co-Founder at Careem.

Takeaways for Us

  • Careem’s main aim is to make the lifestyle of a customer easier by making an all-in-one app.
  • Super-app caters to the diverse needs of a consumer and serves all the products they need in a single application. This way, customers don’t have to run to multiple applications. Instead, they can open one application and explore multiple things simultaneously. A smart move!

More references 1,2,3,4.


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