Goodbye home screen: How NEED is turning Telegram into a digital marketplace

NEED is a chat-native marketplace built inside Telegram that lets users buy eSIMs, gift cards, VPNs, and game top-ups without downloading a separate app. Leveraging Telegram's existing authentication, notifications, and payment rails, it represents a broader shift away from the traditional app store model toward mini-app ecosystems embedded in messaging platforms. The piece draws parallels to WeChat's super-app model in China and argues that services which meet users where their attention already lives — inside a messenger — will outcompete those requiring separate installs.