GoTo Group is pulling the plug on its Vietnam operations. The Indonesian tech giant announced that it will wind down its Gojek-branded services in the country by September 16, in a move that won’t significantly impact its financials. The company said Vietnam accounted for less than 1% of its gross transactions in the second quarter, signaling that the exit is more about focusing its resources on Indonesia and Singapore—markets where it sees a clearer path to profitability.
It’s a familiar story for GoTo. After shedding other non-core assets and slashing costs, the company has been on a mission to tighten its belt and steer itself toward positive earnings. This includes thousands of job cuts and a sharp reduction in marketing spend, though it has yet to reach net income profitability. GoTo reaffirmed its goal to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA by the end of the year, a critical milestone for a company whose stock has plummeted over 80% since its IPO in 2022.
In Vietnam, competition was intense. Singapore-based Grab dominated, while local player Be Group secured USD 30 million in new funding earlier this year to fuel its own growth. Gojek’s entry into the market in 2018 under the GoViet brand was ambitious, but the reality on the ground was tough. Fragmented competition, leadership turnover, and the failure to fully roll out financial services via its acquisition of WePay in 2020 painted a picture of a company that couldn’t gain its footing. By the time GoViet rebranded to Gojek Vietnam in 2020, the cracks were already showing.
GoTo’s decision follows a pattern. It exited Thailand in 2021, sold its loss-making Tokopedia e-commerce unit to ByteDance’s TikTok for USD 1.5 billion, and has now decided to close its Vietnam operations. In fact, the company has been reconsidering its entire approach to Southeast Asia. According to Bloomberg, talks of a merger with Grab surfaced again this year, potentially marking the next chapter in GoTo’s efforts to cut costs and strengthen its competitive edge. But for now, the focus remains on Indonesia and Singapore, the two markets where the company still believes it can deliver on its profitability promise.
GoTo’s Vietnam exit also marks the end of an era that began with high hopes. The company had entered the market with a war chest of USD 500 million, backed by investors like KKR, Google, and Temasek. But after leadership changes and the challenges of battling for market share in a country with entrenched rivals, GoTo’s decision to withdraw feels inevitable.
For the tech giant, the road to profitability continues, and it’s getting narrower.