GRAB’S ATTENTIONS
New services offered by ride-hailing firm
The Southeast Asian ride-hailing service mulls tapping into the e-wallet business as it continues to grow in Thailand.
Grab, the Southeast Asian ride-hailing service, is considering tapping into the e-wallet business as it continues to grow in Thailand through new services.
“The ride-hailing business in Thailand and the Southeast Asia region has seen exponential growth as its serves the local need for transport,” said Yee Wee Tang, country head of Grab Thailand.
In the first half of this year, Grab rides rose by 100% while the number of its drivers rose 226%, a growth momentum it expects will continue. The Grab service has also expanded to cover nine cities from five over the past 12 months, particularly Grab RodDaeng or red truck service in Chiang Mai province.
The ride-hailing service has helped cut travel time by 20% for Thais and increased revenue for drivers by 19%, Mr Yee said.
The company yesterday officially introduced JustGrab in Thailand, the second country in Southeast Asia after Singapore, to run the service. JustGrab automatically assigns its nearest vehicle, either a taxi or car, to the customer for an upfront fixed fare rate.
The company is also offering a new premium car service called GrabCar Plus with a vehicle of less than five years old. However, the fare will be 50% higher than the regular GrabCar.
Grab is also considering to add an e-wallet service in its GrabPay feature to allow users to refill money in an e-wallet and transfer money to other Grab users under the peer-to-peer transfer method.
Currently, GrabPay in Thailand offers credit, debit and cash payments.
He said that the firm plans to bring in new payment innovations to improve users’ ability to pay including QR code payment initiated by the Bank of Thailand.
“We foresee strong usage of GrabPay in Thailand which has had the fastest growth in the region in terms of revenue proportion,” Mr Yee said.
Paradee Sinthawanarong, country marketing head of Grab Thailand, said the firm has also expanded its GrabRewards loyalty programme to 150 partners from several industries including F&B, hospitality, lifestyle, retail, and travel and leisure.
Grab claimed to be the market leader in the on-demand transportation platform in Southeast Asia with a market share of 95% in third-party taxi-hailing and 71% in private vehicle hailing.
According to global market research firm TNS, 4,053 respondents in a June-July survey said passengers use Grab’s services in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, more often than other ride-hailing applications and taxi booking applications.
In Thailand, two-thirds (66%) of passengers surveyed use Grab services most often, compared to another ride-hailing application with only 19% of consumers using a rival firm more often.
The remaining 16% use either the taxibooking application of a traditional taxi operator or other motorbike-hailing applications most often.
Meanwhile, Uber Technologies Inc, the US-based ride hailing service is bringing back its UberMoto motorbike hailing service after having been banned by Thai authorities in May 2016 after using motorcyclists with private licences instead of riders with a public one .
Siripa Jungsawat, general manager of Uber Thailand, said UberMOTO will initially be available in Bangkok’s downtown area including Sathon, Silom and Asok.