Southeast Asian on-demand giant Grab has captured 65% of the ride-hailing market in Indonesia, it said in a press release today.
This claim is based on Grab’s internal research, a spokesperson told KrAsia. That would give it a solid lead over local competitor Go-Jek, but because the data isn’t broken down further, it’s difficult to assess what this really means.
Grab, which started off as a ride-hailing service, sees Indonesia as its largest market. It has grown from covering 12 Indonesian cities in January 2017 to 137 Indonesian cities today, it says. Across the region, the Singapore-headquartered company serves eight countries: Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Cambodia.
In a move to become an ‘everyday super app’, the firm also ventured into other verticals, from food and parcel delivery to payments. It foresees its food delivery service GrabFood becoming the “chosen food delivery service in Indonesia” by end-2018.
That’s a challenging target because food delivery is Go-Jek’s strong suit. It operates in “70 locations” across Indonesia – made up of 144 cities and districts. Go-Jek also has a number of other on-demand services like groceries shopping, house cleaning, and medicine delivery – all verticals Grab is only now beginning to explore. The Indonesian unicorn is entering a number of other Southeast Asian countries recently. KrASIA has reached out to Go-Jek for comments.
Takeaways:
— With its lage population and mobile-first market, Indonesia is important for Grab. It today announced that it will spend an additional US$250 million on Indonesian startups, on top of a US$700 million pledge in 2017.
— Grab and its rival from Indonesia, Go-Jek, are fghting head-to-head for the ride-hailing and other O2O markets in Indonesia and the rest of the region.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad