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Tag: Go Jek

  • First Grab Kitchen in Singapore opens

    First Grab Kitchen in Singapore opens

    Grab has launched its first Grab Kitchen in Singapore, which takes its cloud kitchen network in Southeast Asia to 50.

    Located at 63 Hillview Avenue, the shared kitchen is operated for 10 restaurants including PlayMade, Wolf Burgers and Thai Dynasty. Occupying a 6000sqft area, Grab Kitchen also has a dine-in area for small lunch groups.

    “Together with our merchant partners, we hope to bridge cuisine demand and supply gaps, complement and expand the variety of food options at different price points in the area,” said Dilip Roussenaly, head of GrabFood Singapore, at the opening of the Grab Kitchen in Singapore.

    As operations in cloud kitchens cost less than setting up physical outlets, the concept has become popular among food and beverage merchants.

    “Partnering with GrabFood has enabled us to have an expanded reach to more consumers while minimizing the hassle for them to travel to a location for food,” said Ian Lin, founder of Thai Dynasty.

    Grab’s food-delivery business has become a major pillar for growth as it expands beyond its taxi-hailing roots into other areas, including financial services. Grab’s food delivery business witnessed 5.2 times growth in gross merchandise value last year, and nearly tripled its number of active users.

    Rivals Deliveroo and Foodpanda already operate their own shared kitchen spaces, also known as ghost or cloud kitchens, in Singapore. The firm’s regional rival Go-Jek has also been testing cloud kitchens in Indonesia.

  • Ride-Hailing Service Gojek’s CEO Nadiem Makarim To Join Indonesia’s Cabinet

    Ride-Hailing Service Gojek’s CEO Nadiem Makarim To Join Indonesia’s Cabinet

    Gojek CEO and founder Nadiem Makarim said on Monday he had resigned from the ride-hailing and payments company to join the cabinet of Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

    “I have received a big honor to be able to join the cabinet,” Makarim told reporters at the presidential palace.

    Makarim said his specific role would be announced by the president later in the week.

    Indonesia media have linked Makarim to a possible post in a new Digital Economy ministry or in education.

    Gojek did not immediately respond to requests for comment on who his successor would be.

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  • Go-Viet revolving door sees new general manager quit after five months

    Go-Viet revolving door sees new general manager quit after five months

    Le Diep Kieu Trang has become the second top honcho to leave ride-hailing firm Go-Viet in less than a year.

    Making the announcement Wednesday, Go-Viet said that Trang, also known as Christy Le, had decided to choose her own career path and the company “regretted it.”

    However, the company did not reveal the exact time that Trang is leaving.

    “After five months at the company, Christy has decided to take a different path. We always work hard to find a mutually agreeable way forward, but were unable to do so in this instance,” Go-Viet said in a release.

    The company made no mention of her replacement.

    Trang was appointed general manager of Go-Viet last April. She said her new job “was unique and interesting.”

    In an interview with KrASIA, a technology business media site based in Singapore earlier this month, Trang expressed her ambition to bring the platform to all Vietnamese consumers.

    This is the second leadership change for Go-Viet in less than a year. Her predecessor, Nguyen Vu Duc left last March along with deputy general director Nguyen Bao Linh.

    Their resignation came amidst increasing competition in Vietnam’s ride-hailing market, with current leader Grab on an expansion spree and new players like Be Group fighting hard for a bigger share of the pie.

    According to a report by market research firm ABI Research, Go-Viet has 10.3 percent of the ride-hailing market in the country, compared to Grab’s 72.9 percent.

    Go-Viet, an affiliate of Indonesian Go-Jek Group, has said it has completed millions of trips since it was launched in September last year. The company offers transport and food delivery services.

    Trang had became the director of Facebook’s operations in Vietnam in March last year and resigned from the position in December, citing “family reasons.”

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  • Amazon In Talks For Stake In Indonesia’s Ride-Hailing Startup Go-Jek

    Amazon In Talks For Stake In Indonesia’s Ride-Hailing Startup Go-Jek

    Amazon.com Inc is in early talks with Go-Jek Group to buy a stake in the Indonesian ride-hailing startup, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

    Details of the stake were not known and the source did not want to be identified as the talks are private.

    Both Amazon and Go-Jek did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

    Indonesia’s first unicorn, Go-Jek, has up to 20 services and has evolved from ride-sharing to allowing its customers to make online payments and order everything from food to groceries.

    Earlier this year, Amazon also bought a stake in British online food delivery company Deliveroo as it competes with Uber Technologies Inc’s Uber Eats in the global race to dominate the market for takeaway meals.

    Reuters reported in July that Amazon is expanding its transportation prowess to do virtually everything short of building a car.

    Go-Jek, which counts Alphabet Inc’s, Alibaba Group Holdings Inc, Tencent Holdings and Visa Inc (V.N) as investors, last raised here funding in July at a valuation of around $10 billion.

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  • Visa takes stake in startup Go-Jek

    Visa takes stake in startup Go-Jek

    Digital-payments company Visa has invested an undisclosed amount into Southeast Asian ride-sharing and services startup Go-Jek giving it a foothold in the company’s payments platform.

    The two companies say they will work together to provide greater options for cashless payments and more seamless experiences for consumers across Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

    Indonesian-based Go-Jek, which has since launched in Vietnam and Thailand, has created Go-Pay which is one of the leading digital-payment providers in Indonesia and established itself as a regional rival to GrabPay

    “The partnership will see Go-Jek and Visa collaborating on innovative payment solutions for digital-first consumers and Southeast Asia’s unbanked and underserved population,” the two companies said in a statement.

    “Financial inclusion in Southeast Asia continues to be an urgent and important issue. The vast majority of Indonesia’s transactions are still cash-based and the adoption of digital payment services is as low as one-in-four users in markets like Vietnam. Addressing this opportunity could increase Gross Domestic Product levels by between 9 per cent and 14 per cent, even in relatively large Southeast Asian economies,” the statement said.

    Visa regional president Asia Pacific, Chris Clark said Visa and Go-Jek share common objectives. “We both want to make everyday life more convenient, whether it’s how people move around town in Southeast Asia’s fast-growing urban areas, or making it easier for people to pay and be paid all over the world. We also have a shared goal to bring formal financial services to the unbanked and underserved, including micro, small and medium businesses. Through this partnership, we will explore ways to leverage the power of Go-Jek and Visa’s networks to expand financial access in Southeast Asia.”

    Go-Jek president Andre Soelistyo said Visa’s investment in the company is an endorsement of its business model.

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  • Thai bank invests in Go-Jek to take on Grab

    Thai bank invests in Go-Jek to take on Grab

    Siam Commercial Bank has made a “significant investment” in Indonesian ride-hailing app Go-Jek.

    Go-Jek, which has an estimated valuation of around US$10 billion, will be offering financial services in partnership with the bank as well as expand its food delivery services in Thailand following the funding. It is expected to add SCB’s products in payments, digital lending and insurance to the available offerings on its app within the coming months.

    “Our products will be connected, SCB will oversee finance while Go-Jek and Get will look at digital and logistics,” said SCB president Arak Sutivong.

    Go-Jek has operated in Thailand under the brand name Get since earlier this year, where it is in competition with Singaporean ride-hailing app Grab.

    “We have more then 20 services, in Indonesia,” said Go-Jek’s head of international, Andrew Lee. “We will pick and choose the best playbook for Thailand and carefully curate that.”

  • Singtel signs cross-promotion deal with GOJEK

    Singtel signs cross-promotion deal with GOJEK

    Singtel has inked a new partnership with ride hailing company GOJEK aimed at cross-marketing their offerings and providing perks to users and drivers.

    Under the agreement, Singtel will offer GOJEK drivers who subscribe to its Combo mobile plans data-free usage while using GOJEK, as well as a 20% discount on their subscription costs and a complementary caller ID service.

    Meanwhile new and existing customers of Singtel’s digital focused GOMO plan will receive ride hailing credits worth S$5 ($3.67), and all Singtel customers will be offered other ride hailing perks.

    “With this partnership with GOJEK, we are taking our business and customer relationships to the next level, beyond just providing traditional carriage and connectivity,” Singtel CEO consumer Singapore Yuen Kuan Moon said.

    “While our customers have come to expect reliable and comprehensive mobile coverage from us, they are always looking for more value and this we can extend in the form of perks and privileges that come from mutually-beneficial partnerships.”

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  • Two execs quit ride-hailing firm Go-Viet

    Two execs quit ride-hailing firm Go-Viet

    Go-Viet has confirmed that its general director and deputy general director have quit their positions. General director Nguyen Vu Duc and deputy general director Nguyen Bao Linh have resigned from their positions, the Vietnamese ride-sharing firm announced Friday.

    The two would continue to work as advisors for Go-Viet and its Indonesian counterpart Go-Jek from Vietnam, while the management of Go-Viet’s day-to-day work will be handled by the company’s remaining leaders, it said.

    Phung Tuan Duc, Go-Viet’s managing director, said the company would continue working closely with Duc and Linh to help develop the platform.

    According to Deal Street Asia, the news of Duc and another of Go-Viet’s senior directors resigning was already announced internally earlier this week. The news site also claimed the two had demanded large sums of money in compensation upon resigning, but the company did not comment on this.

    Nguyen Vu Duc graduated from Harvard University, the U.S., with a master’s degree in business administration and worked for nearly a decade at a major bank in Vietnam. In 2014, he helped deploy ride-hailing firm Uber’s services in Vietnam and went on to launch a fintech firm in 2015-2018.

    Duc eventually returned to the ride-sharing market as co-founder and CEO of Go-Viet, which began operations last August. At press meetings, he has said that Go-Viet was a Vietnamese startup with funding and technology support from Go-Jek.

    Duc and Linh’s resignations have come at a time when Go-Viet has been stagnating in all its services – ride-sharing, food delivery and package delivery. Since the start of this month, the company has cut its drivers’ revenue to 20 percent, prompting many drivers to consider switching to another ride-sharing service.

    Meanwhile, its main competitor Grab has been expanding its food delivery service and its cashless payment service GrabPay by Moca, which now has new features allowing users to pay electricity, water and phone bills.

    The Be Group, the latest ride-sharing market entrant in Vietnam, has announced it has recruited over 15,000 drivers in just three months and is planning to expand its presence to 22 provinces and municipalities this year.

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  • Indonesian airline Garuda talking with Go-Jek to provide logistics support

    Indonesian airline Garuda talking with Go-Jek to provide logistics support

    Indonesia’s national carrier Garuda and Go-Jek are in talks for a partnership that will make it easier for the ride-hailing and e-commerce app to move goods to customers within the 17,000 islands of the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago. Garuda chief executive Ari Askhara told Reuters the talks are in an advanced stage and an agreement is expected to be finalised by the two companies in the next few months. Askhara said Garuda was developing a new technology relating to e-commerce and logistics. The partnership would enable goods ordered via Go-Jek’s app in one city in Indonesia to be delivered in another using Garuda’s fleet, he said. The CEO did not provide more details.

    Started in 2011 in Jakarta, Go-Jek has evolved from a ride-hailing service to a one-stop app through which its customers can make online payments and order everything from food, groceries to e-commerce goods.

    Go-Jek, which is valued at between US$9 billion and US$10 billion according to sources, declined to comment.

    E-commerce has been growing rapidly in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, but one of the main obstacles is logistics as the islands are sprinkled across an area bigger than the European Union.

    Go-Jek recently raised over US$1 billion in a funding round as it challenges Singapore-based rival Grab for a larger share of the region, sources told Reuters.

    The Go-Jek proposal is one of several being explored by Garuda to cut its dependence on passenger traffic as the airline tries to grow its profits after a bumpy 2018.

    The airline has been battling for market share against local market leader Lion Air, which in October suffered a crash of a Boeing Co 737 MAX jet, killing all 189 people on board.

     

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  • Singapore Plum stops delivering food

    Singapore Plum stops delivering food

    Hong Kong food-delivery startup Plum has closed its Singapore operations. An email delivered to Plum’s customers read: “It is with great sorrow to announce that we are ceasing our operations in Singapore from 21st January. Plum would like to thank you for your past support and going on this wonderful journey with us. We would not have achieved what we had without you. Best wishes to the year ahead.”

    Plum’s Singapore operations lasted less than a year in a highly competitive market, which saw the exit of hawker food delivery service Fastbee several months ago. The firm’s entire Hong Kong staff were let go in November to “right size” operations.

    The market is set to get even more competitive this coming year as Grab and Go-Jek struggle for market share in the territory.

  • Vietnamese platform FastGo expands to Myanmar

    Vietnamese platform FastGo expands to Myanmar

    FastGo, Vietnam’s first ride-hailing service, has kicked off operations in Myanmar as part of its Southeast Asia expansion plans. Its joint venture with Myanmarese conglomerate Asia Sun Group began offering services on December 28. CEO Nguyen Huu Tuat said at the launch that Myanmar is a promising market with the e-commerce, travel and retail sectors all growing rapidly. With a population of 50 million, transport demand in the country is expected to rise, he said.

    FastGo targets major cities and provinces and expects to sign up two million users and 100,000 drivers.

    It pursues the same business model as in Vietnam, only taking a fixed service cost from drivers and not commissions on each ride and guaranteeing them higher fares during rush hour and bad weather.

    It allows users to tip drivers, and offers a priority service for certain customers.

    Tuat said FastGo has tied up with Asia Sun because the group has experience in various sectors, deep pockets and an understanding of the local market and culture.

    He expected the venture to benefit Myanmar’s digital economy.

    FastGo was launched in Vietnam last June and now has over 40,000 partner drivers in 10 provinces and cities.

    It aims to be more than just a ride hailing app, offering other services such as food delivery.

    FastGo Vietnam Joint Stock Company was established in April 2018 with its headquarters in Hanoi. The company belongs to a wide network of services provided by Nextech, a leading tech firm in Vietnam.

    The Nikkei Asian Review reported that the company hopes to make its service available in 20 cities in Vietnam and five other Southeast Asian markets, including the Philippines, Cambodia and Thailand, by the end of 2019.

  • Go-Viet, Grab Vietnam to face tight competition

    Go-Viet, Grab Vietnam to face tight competition

    Vietnamese technology startup Be Group Corporation officially launched its ride-hailing platform Thursday, with beBike and beCar. The latest entrant to a market dominated by the likes of Grab and Go Viet has set an ambitious target of partnering with 10,000 drivers in a few weeks, by the end of 2018, and 100,000 drivers next year. Unlike the current ride-hailing firms, Be Group has registers its service as a transportation business.

    “We have gathered a lot of talent, and I personally have experience running start-ups for many years. With thousands of billions of dong ($1= VND23,287) mobilised, we are confident our platform can compete in this fierce market,” Be Group CEO Tran Thanh Hai said at the launch.

    Be Group apps will start operating in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from December 17. The company has announced an initial 25-percent royalty for beBike and beCar drivers, while specific prices and discount schemes for customers have not been revealed.

    Be Group hopes to become a big player like Grab or Go Viet with a comprehensive super-app. In 2019, the company plans to roll out delivery and payment services. It aims to attract tens of millions of users in the next three years.

    Vietnam’s ride-hailing market has seen new entrants after Uber’s departure early this year, including Vietnamese firm FastGo, GoViet – a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Go-Jek, Aber and the latest Be Group.

    Grab, which counts Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp among its backers, had 175,000 drivers and bikers in Vietnam as of September and is the most prominent player in Vietnam after it pushed out Uber, according to Reuters.

    Rival GoJek entered Vietnam in August eyeing to grab a share of the fast-growing market. Vietnam has 95 million people and many use smartphones.

    A number of local taxi companies in Vietnam have come together to compete against ride-hailing firms, while Grab has been in a legal battle for more than a year with local taxi firm Vinasun Corp.

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  • Aber ride-hailing service hits the road in Hanoi

    Aber ride-hailing service hits the road in Hanoi

    Aber, the second Vietnamese ride-hailing service, launched its Hanoi operations Friday, four months after making its HCMC debut. The ride-hailing market has seen new entrants after Uber’s departure, including Vietnamese firm FastGo, GoViet – a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Go-Jek, and the latest Aber. Aber estimates it will attract 5,000 taxi drivers and 5,000-10,000 motorbike drivers in Hanoi this year.

    In HCMC, the company is working with 7,000 drivers serving  more than 60,000 customers. Aber general director Huynh Le Phu Phong said the company was not afraid of major competitors such as Grab because it offers a wide variety of transport services.

    The firm will offer similar rates as other competitors, but give better benefits to its drivers, he said.

    “We do not force drivers to only work for Aber. They can also work for other companies to increase their income and improve their lives,” Phong said.

    In its latest update, Aber has added new features including a navigation system and accurate positioning to each alley, village, district and province in Vietnam.

    Vietnamese engineers designed the software.

    Next year, the company will focus on expanding its services, including Aber Express for delivery services, Aber Track for freight services, Aber Business for companies and Aber Travel for travel services, Phong said.

    Aber focuses on serving individual customers to help them save money, as well as drivers, when their vehicles are vacant, he added

    Instead of having to drop off items at the post office or delivery centers, drivers will come and pick things up right at the customer’s house.

    Current market dominator Grab has expanded its service to include GrabFood and GrabCar Business, the latter targeting the corporate sector. These moves pose further challenges for local long-standing taxi firms like Mai Linh, Taxi Group and Vinasun.

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  • Taxi or not? Vietnam debate rages over Grab status

    Taxi or not? Vietnam debate rages over Grab status

    Transport authorities and taxi associations have reiterated that ride-hailing firm Grab should be treated as a taxi service, but experts disagree. Nguyen Cong Hung, vice chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transportation Association (VATA), said at a recent meeting that it was incorrect to identify Grab as an electronic contract service firm.

    Hung said that legal experts have affirmed that Grab and other ride-hailing services are taxi services, and ordering a car service via a phone call or a phone app are only superficially different modalities.

    While some people believe that calling Grab a taxi service will hinder the development of technology, Hung disagreed.

    “Identifying a car service as traditional taxi or technology taxi will guarantee authorities management power and fairness in terms of their responsibilities. Whichever service applies technology will have higher profits,” he added.

    Echoing Hung, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Taxi Association, Ta Long Hy, said that any service which sets transport fees collects money and spends a large amount of money on discounts is a transportation service, and not merely a software company.

    Hy said that all car services that are 9-seaters or lower are taxi services in nature. “The Ministry of Transport should not create an exclusive playing field for a service that is basically a taxi service.”

    He proposed that 9-seater or lower car services, whether Grab or traditional taxis, be identified by a mark on their license plates or a larger registration label on the car’s windshield.

    Earlier this month, the Transport Ministry released the latest draft of a transportation management decree under which under 9-seater car services be registered as taxi firms before they can apply ride-hailing technologies.

    This means that Grab and other ride-hailing firms would have to register their services again as a taxi business and comply with corresponding legal responsibilities regarding their operating licenses, drivers’ profiles and tax duties.

    Should the decree be passed, Grab and other ride-hailing cars will have to put a sticker labeled “taxi” on their windshields and carry a taxi legend on the top.

    The draft goes against many experts’ requests to treat ride-healing services as a new business model that is different from traditional taxi service.

    Nguyen Dinh Cung, director of the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM), had said earlier that firms that primarily used software cannot be called a transportation business.

    Cung said that the government should encourage new investment forms or business models with an open and fair environment in keeping with Industry 4.0 trends.

    Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc said that the Ministry of Transport has been making changes with recent drafts without having a consistent viewpoint.

    The fact the ministry wants to identify ride-hailing services as taxi firms is against the government’s policy of prioritizing technology development in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, he said.

    Marketing expert Do Hoa said that Grab and other ride-hailing services should be managed under a new law specifically written for technological services.

    Traditional regulations related to taxi firms are not appropriate for Grab, as it is not a transport company, he said.

    The heated debates and struggles between ride-hailing cars and traditional taxis have not cooled after the exit of Uber from the Southeast Asian market in March. Taxi firms have continued to complain about the unfair competition they are facing.

    They have also joined hands to fight the market onslaught of ride-hailing firms.

    Grab has consistently been denying that it is a taxi firm, saying it only provides technological solutions to transport services.

    The debate over Grab’s status as transport company is hardly new in Vietnam. Vietnam’s top taxi company Vinasun sued Grab for $1.84 million in losses, citing “unhealthy competition”.

    In Vietnam, local cab firms like Mai Linh and Vinasun have to pay value added tax (VAT) of 10 percent and corporate income tax of 20 percent, while Grab only have to pay some 3 percent.

    The ride-hailing market in Vietnam has seen new entrants after Uber’s departure, including Fastgo and GoViet, which is an affiliate of Indonesia’s Gojek.

    Current market dominator Grab has expanded its services to include GrabFood, a food delivery service, and GrabCar Business, targeting the corporate sector.

    These moves pose further challenges for long-standing taxi firms like Mai Linh, Taxi Group and Vinasun.

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  • Go-Jek launches fuel delivery service

    Go-Jek launches fuel delivery service

    Go-Jek, in partnership with Indonesia’s oil major Pertamina, has launched an on-demand fuel-delivery service. Called Go-Pertamina, it brings fuel to users from the nearest Pertamina gas station. The service is available in South and Central Jakarta from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. It does not serve orders on toll roads, basements, or other enclosed areas. Given that Go-Jek has a large network of drivers who need to top up their fuel regularly, they could become some of Go-Pertamina’s biggest users.

    Go-Pertamina is part of the Indonesian ride-hailer’s Go-Life app, which offers on-demand massages, cleaning, haircare, and more. Go-Jek also recently launched a daily deals marketplace.

    Go-Jek has been expanding regionally. It has launched in Thailand and Vietnam and is set to launch in Singapore within a month. Its expansion into the Philippines, however, has hit a regulatory snag.

    It has raised about US$2.1 billion from investors, even as Grab has claimed to have outpaced Go-Jek in Indonesia’s ride-hailing market.

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