Grab for good
Regional super-app gears up to make a bigger social impact in Southeast Asia. By Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata in Jakarta
The regional ride-hailing giant that has turned into an “everyday super app” for millions is seeking to make an even bigger impact on the lives of Southeast Asians with its technology and digital services.
But while Singapore-based Grab has been able to improve the lives of many of its drivers and other partners in Indonesia, slow internet connections keep it from fully tapping the potential of a young population keen to be part of the digital economy.
Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati acknowledged more needs to be done to develop broadband infrastructure across the archipelago, where less than 60% of the population has access to the internet.
“The digital economy works based on the availability of internet connections, therefore, we need to ensure that all parts of Indonesia would be connected through the internet so that the country could fully reap the benefits of the digital technology,” she told reporters on the sidelines of an event staged by Grab to launch its Grab for Good 2025 social impact programme in Jakarta on Sept 24.
“By having internet connections, they would have options in their lives and could have access to various job opportunities,” she added.
Since it started out in 2012 with just 40 taxi drivers in Kuala Lumpur, Grab says it has now enabled some 9 million micro-entrepreneurs — that’s one in every 70 Southeast Asians — to earn an income through its platform. Their numbers include people who were jobless prior to signing up with Grab, people with disabilities, as well as others who wanted a way out of low-paying and labour-intensive jobs.
Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan estimates the platform contributed US$5.8 billion to Southeast Asia’s economy from March 2018 to March 2019.
“Our business model hinges on how well small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs perform on our platform. Without them, we won’t have customers. It is in our interest that our micro-entrepreneurs do well economically,” he said during the Jakarta event.
“We support them and those who want to be part of the digital economy by building a supportive infrastructure around them, in partnership with governments and other companies so that they can thrive.”
Grab has set three goals for its 2025 social impact programmes: improving digital inclusion and digital literacy for 3 million people in the region; empowering micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses by helping to digitise workflow and processes of 5 million traditional businesses and small merchants; and training 20,000 students for work in the technology sector through tieups with various partners.
In partnership with national associations dedicated to the welfare of deaf people in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, Grab has launched the Break the Silence initiative aimed at developing and providing technology to support the deaf and hearing-impaired in the region. Currently there are more than 500 deaf driver-partners who have signed up with Grab and the number is expected to double in the coming year.
“Finding suitable earning opportunities is a perennial challenge for deaf people in Indonesia and often the lack of available non-verbal communications alternatives hinders deaf people from getting work opportunities,” said Bambang Prasetyo, chairman of the Movement for Deaf People’s Welfare in Indonesia, using sign language.
Al Kautsar Wirawan, a deaf Grab driver from Bandung in West Java, is among those who were able to overcome difficulties by joining the app a year ago after he was fired from his previous job because of his hearing limitations.
Grab is making improvements and adding new features to its app to make it easier for its drivers to communicate with their passengers. In Malaysia it has created a sign dictionary to teach people how to communicate with the deaf community through a widget. In Indonesia in December it will launch a transport service called GrabGerak, dedicated to passengers with heading disabilities in Medan in North Sumatra and Semarang in Central Java.
In Thailand, there are 375,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, according to the National Association of the Deaf Thailand. About 50 are earning a living through the Grab platform, which it has developed with accessible and inclusive features to support them.
Grab said it has recorded more than 320 million ride-hailing, food and parcel delivery bookings in 20 cities across 18 provinces in Thailand from both Thais and foreign tourists, and it continues to solidify
its commitment to offer greater social and economic benefits through technology, as the government moves toward the legalisation of ride-hailing.
In Indonesia, the legalisation of ride-hailing appears to be a long shot, even though millions of people use the motorcycle taxi services of Grab and its homegrown rival Gojek every day. But Grab is experiencing a rise in its food delivery service in Indonesia, and in traffic-choked Jakarta it has become a convenient alternative for local foodies to save time by ordering in instead of going to a restaurant.
Erik Susanto owns a restaurant specialising in black, fried duck in the Bendungan Hilir neighbourhood in Central Jakarta, close to the central business district. He says he has seen a shift in the way Jakarta foodies enjoy their meals from his establishment with the growth of food delivery.
“There’s a huge difference in sales. In 2018, delivery made up 20% of all sales but this year so far, food delivery has made up 80% of sales,” he said, adding that the trend was visibly changing with a big increase in online delivery and a 15% decrease of dine-in customers.
The shift has also affected Grab motorbike drivers, some of whom find themselves devoting more time to food deliveries than to providing rides.
Among them is Miko Hidayat, who has a strategic location near Erik’s duck eatery.
“Now I can get five to 10 food orders every day from the surrounding Bendungan Hilir area. I’m only taking food orders now; it is much simpler without having to deal with customers who complain about the traffic,” Miko said.
Our business model hinges on how well small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs perform on our platform. Without them, we won’t have customers ANTHONY TAN Grab co-founder and CEO