Grab eyes WeChat-style app to cement regional position

Grab is opening up its platform to third-party developers and peers as part of efforts by the Southeast Asian start-up to pivot from a ride-hailing app to a “one-stop shop.”

The revamped platform is intended to be similar to Tencent’s ubiquitous WeChat messaging app in China, where e- commerce, gaming and other developers piggyback off WeChat’s one- billion- plus accounts. Grab’s move is aimed at keeping consumers on its platform longer, thus collecting more data that it ultimately can use to generate income.

It is part of efforts by the sixyear-old Singapore-based company to cement its dominant position in the region as rivals including Indonesia’s Go-Jek — backed by Google, Tencent and Temasek — also rev up. Go-Jek plans to invest $500 million to expand into Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in coming months.

The move also suggests that Southeast Asia is more closely hewing to the China tech model of conglomerates offering a multitude of services, rather than the more focused approach of their US tech peers.

However, Grab’s ambitious bid to develop a platform across disparate countries will bring the company into competition with groups supported by China’s tech giants, including Alibaba-backed e-commerce operator Lazada, and Sea, a platform spanning retail, gaming and payments in which Tencent has invested.

The relaunch also comes as Grab faces scrutiny at home by Singapore’s antitrust watchdog, which last week challenged the company’s purchase of rival Uber’s operations in the region, raising the prospect that the group’s landmark deal may need to be unwound.

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore said Uber’s March agreement to fold its operations into Grab, in return for a 27.5% stake in the larger business, had “substantially lessened” competition because the two were each others’ closest competitors. Regulators, citing complaints from riders, said that had allowed Grab to raise prices and lower the quality of its services.

Grab said its newly relaunched app should help push