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The West Got Two Half-Apps Instead of a Super App: Google Maps vs. Uber

The two credible super app contenders in the West have arrived at the same ambition from opposite directions: Uber is a commerce engine trying to learn discovery, and Google Maps is a discovery engine that avoids owning the transaction. One can sell you almost anything but cannot help you decide what to buy, the other knows nearly everything about the world around you, but hands you to someone else the moment money needs to move.

The scale on both sides can’t be argued. Uber closed 2025 with $52 billion in revenue, and in May, crossed 50 million Uber One members, who now drive half of gross bookings across mobility and delivery. Google Maps, which Alphabet does not break out separately, is by longstanding analyst estimates a low-double-digit-billions business across local ads and API licensing, with more than two billion monthly users and, since March, a Gemini-powered conversational layer called Ask Maps. 

Seven years ago, Skift published a deep dive ask

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