The race is on for a "super app" for Southeast Asia as mobile-based e-commerce makes inroads in the region, experts say.

"It's a race to be a super app in ASEAN," Varun Mittal, global emerging markets Fintech leader at consultancy EY, said during a panel discussion at the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday. He was referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional political and economic grouping.

A super app allows users to access multiple services from a single mobile app, such as enabling them to make financial transactions, and order food or hail a ride.

"Everyone is looking to payments as the first step to go into the rest of financial services," Mittal said, adding that "making money in payments alone is not a viable business."

But to be successful, providers must focus on building trust and showing that what they offer improved livelihoods through connecting marginalized people to the broader economy, according to the panel discussions.

Southeast Asia's internet economy is expected to be exceed $240 billion by 2025, according to a study released in November by Google and Singapore's Temasek Holdings. The report said that as mobile internet becomes more affordable, it will drive growth in sectors like ride-hailing and e-commerce.

The region's internet economy was predicted to be about $72 billion by the end of last year, up 37 percent from a year earlier, as measured by gross merchandise value —which is a key industry metric measuring total dollar value of merchandise sold online, the study said.

Companies must show that the purpose of the data they are accumulating is not to "snatch information," Mittal stressed. "It's more of we're trying to help enable you, we want to help you become part of this economy, let's work together to help you succeed."