Grab seeks hold of ride-hailing market
Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading ride-hailing platform, has a five-year plan of becoming the leading online-to-offline (O2O) consumer platform.
“Grab will continue to redefine ridehailing services by offering greater transport options, which will enable us to have a more efficient transport network and reach broader groups of consumers through cashless payments,” Anthony Tan, cofounder and group chief executive, said at Grab’s fifth anniversary celebration in Singapore yesterday.
Through leveraging the strength of its brand recognition, Grab will focus more on e-payment and the O2O platform by bridging the gap between physical stores and online commerce, he said.
Grab, which has 45 million users and 930,000 drivers across Southeast Asia, aims to be an O2O consumer platform leader over the next five years. By utilising the company’s vehicle network, it will allow consumers to order food or other services online, while delivery service and payment can be done via the Grab platform.
This will widen its revenue opportunities and increase frequencies for its ride hailing service.
According to a study by Temasek and Google entitled “e-conomy SEA”, the total value of e-payments in Southeast Asia will reach US$500 billion (17 trillion baht) in 2025. The ride-sharing platform is expected to grow five times to $13 billion in 2025, with Thailand expected to grow by 20% to $2 billion.
Grab currently offers services in 55 cities in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar. The company secures 2.5 million rides daily.
Co-founder Tan Hooi Ling said the transport market in Southeast Asia is huge, valued at $25 billion per year. With the total value of e-payments being exponentially larger, Grab plans to introduce a tailored payment service to capitalise on growth.
Ms Tan said Grab is working with the Thai government to make ride-sharing services legal. The Philippines has already legalised such services, while Vietnam has a pilot ride-sharing programme. In Singapore, GrabCar and GrabTaxi vehicles allow customers to use their services through the JustGrab service.
Head of products Jerald Singh said the company not only provides vehicle bookings and car pool services, but also offers “GrabNow”, a service which digitises the street hailing experience.
Passengers can flag down a GrabBike driver on the street, book a ride immediately and pay via the Grab app. The service is now available in Jakarta, with Bangkok targeted next.
Citing the reported entitled “Five years of moving SEA together”, Ms Tan said that over
the past five years, Grab commuters have been able to reach their destinations with a 52% reduction in travel time when compared with general public transport. The commute time in Thailand was reduced by 20%, while it can drop by up to 70% and 64% in the Philippines and Indonesia, respectively.
The company has increased the number of drivers in Southeast Asia from 2,000 in 2013 to 930,000 in 2017, while the number of drivers in Thailand is increasing by 226% a year.