KrASIA Weekly: Grab launches ‘Trip Planner’ in Jakarta; more competition for ride-hailing companies

2019-03-31

Hi there, it’s Robin from Singapore.

The dream of becoming the super app in Southeast Asia – linking everything from transport, payments, food delivery to grocery and other forms of shopping all in one app – while difficult, is not stopping tech companies such as Grab and Go-Jek.

Just last week, Grab announced additional financial services – loans and insurance services – on its platform at the Money 20/20 event in Singapore. This week, in Jakarta, the company went on to introduce its ‘Trip Planner’ feature, one that integrates public transport features fully within the Grab app. Think Google maps, but all within the Grab app.

It’s also interesting to note that rival Go-Jek was actually the pioneer of this idea for its domestic market – linking the app with public transportation network – but the plan was shelved. Now, Grab, instead, has become the first to roll these out, right here in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s ride-hailing market is also poised for a major change. The country’s Ministry of Transport has implemented a fixed range of fares to account for the interest of driver partners, owners of ride-hailing companies as well as consumers. The new tariff rules will begin from May 2019.

On the topic of ride-hailing, things are changing really quick both in China and Singapore.

In China, with ride-hailing behemoth Didi Chuxing still reeling from a tumultuous 2018, it is opening doors to welcome more competition and very possibly greater disruption. Other Chinese tech firms – Alibaba, Tencent, Suning, and several Chinese automakers – are now coming together, putting their bets on smart mobility to compete.

As for the case in Singapore, Grab’s dominance isn’t stopping competition as well. Go-Jek, and TADA are already operating in the city-state. Vietnamese Fastgo will be joining in the game in April.

Read on to find out more interesting stories from last week, and feel free to tip us if you have news clue or you just want to talk with us, email us at hello@kr-asia.com and we are looking forward to hearing from you.

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