The much-awaited launch of TATA Super App is postponed once again.
Last year, in the month of August, the Tata Group announced they are working on a Super App, a move to lock horns with Amazon and Reliance in the Indian online retail space.
The super app that will operate via the group’s Tata Digital arm was initially slated to launch late last year. But soon, it got postponed to March 3rd which also coincides with Tata Group’s Founders’ Day. Now, according to a recent media report, the deadline has once again been pushed back.
The company is still waiting for approval from the Competition Commission of India aka CCI’s for its proposed deal with BigBasket.
In early February 2021, the Tata Group officially sealed discussions with the homegrown e-grocer to buy a 68% stake in BigBasket for a whopping Rs 9,500 crores. After that, as per the norms, Tata applied to the National Company Law Tribunal aka NCLT and CCI for statutory and regulatory clearance.
A legal adviser to the conglomerate said that the CCI’s approval is being expected to come in soon. Nonetheless, it is not an ‘unusual delay’ as bigger deals usually take an entire month for getting all the required clearances.
Tata Group officials close to the development revealed that the conglomerate is currently busy tying up up several loose ends as the integration of internal business structures and management into Tata Digital has its own challenges.
Simran Dhir, the Head of Competition law practice at S&R Associates – a law firm, mentioned that the Competition Commission of India usually clears simple tractions which do not have substantial overlaps within a month, while the approval for complex transactions comes after 3-6 months.
Dhir mentioned that the CCI first searches for business overlap between the proposed parties. After that, the commission then considers the structure and size of the overlapping markets and if the deal or combination poses the possibility of impacting the competition or the supply chain in the overall market space. Only then it gives its approval to any deal.
Currently, even though TATA group awaits CCI clearance, its Tata Digital arm is continually creating several consumer service verticals such as grocery, dairy, pharmacy, medical consultation, lifestyle, beauty, education, logistics, consumer finance, insurance and payments.
This shows how aggressively Tata Group is gunning for acquiring a slice of India’s online retail market space – a domain wherein Jio’s umbrella of services and Amazon has already expanded to a great extent. Thus, it now remains to be seen how successful Tata Super App becomes by eating a sizeable portion of their market share.
On the flip side, repeated delays in the launch of TATA Super app is constantly hampering the market reputation of the group and raising questions over the capabilities of TATA in the digital space. TATA is yet to grab a sizeable share of any digital pie, be it telecom, ecommerce or any other new-age business. However, Jio is reaching new heights and achieving new milestones by introducing a fleet of digital services and offerings.
As the launch of TATA Super app is getting stuck in new challenges at repeated intervals, the much-awaited and much-hyped Super app appears far from rollout in the near future.
Currently, no concrete launch date of TATA Super app has been confirmed by the conglomerate. Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. did not respond back to any queries as of now. We will keep you updated on all future developments. Until then, stay tuned.
