George Yang, Author at Goody Feed

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’d have heard of Go-Jek. The Google- and Temasek-backed Indonesian company, valued at about USD$5 billion, has been building its war chest recently in order to take on its closest rival, Grab, which is valued at about USD$11 billion. Since Uber’s sudden announcement to exit in March this year (which eventually led to its complete shutdown of the Singapore operations in May), a number of smaller ride-hailing firms have emerged, namely Tada, Filo Technologies, Ryde, Kardi, Urge and Jugnoo. In a few short months, Jugnoo left the market, joining forces with Kardi instead. But everyone knows that in order to at least create a dent in the industry, they need lots of money to recruit both drivers and riders – and that is precisely the reason why everyone is looking forward to Go-Jek. And just yesterday, TechCrunch has come to understand that Go-Jek is finally ready: they’re coming to our shores by this month. Go-Jek, The Indonesian Ride-Hailing Firm It’s unknown what Go-Jek is bringing to the table, since the other ride-hailing firms have come out with innovative solutions like lower commissions (or even no commission) for drivers. In May this year, Go-Jek has openly said that they would be entering four markets, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, in the “next few months”, with a war chest of USD$500 million. That’s not all: sources also told TechCrunch two weeks ago that Go-Jek plans to raise another USD$2 billion to fuel its expansion to these region. That’s a lot of money. Since 12 September 2018, they’ve made good their promise on one country: Vietnam. Instead of going in alone, they teamed up with a local team there and created “Go-Viet” instead, recruiting about 25,000 drivers. Its Thailand service would be launched next month and they would also be working with a local partner there, creating an app known as “Get”. Closer to home, it’s rumoured that Go-Jek is in talks with ComfortDelGro. Lest you’re not aware, ComfortDelGro has an app that works pretty similar to ride-hailing app, except that it only calls ComfortDelGro cabs (well, ar bo then). If their strategy mirrors the Vietnam and Thailand market, then we might be seeing Go-Comfort. Kind of a lit name, if you’d ask me. But Go-Jek Hasn't Commented Yet Now, before you uninstall all hail-riding apps in your phone and wait aimlessly at your void deck for a Go-Jek car to appear miraculously in front of you, don’t. The company has not officially announced this launch, and so far has not answered any request for comments. But looking at the expansion plan, I bet my boss’s car that by the end of this month, we might be seeing promo codes back le. Especially so since the Grab-Uber issue is kind of finally getting a closure. This Came After Grab and Uber were Fined by Singapore Competition WatchDog Just two weeks ago, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore finally came to the conclusion that the Grab-Uber merger in Singapore “led to the substantial eroding of competition in the ride-hailing market”, and therefore fined Uber S$6.58 million and Grab S$6.42 million. According to the competition watchdog, Grab currently holds about 80% of the market share. And needless to say, Go-Jek welcomes the decision. A spokesman said, “We are encouraged to see the measures being taken to level the playing field – it will have a significant effect on our strategy and timeline...We are now confident that Singapore will have a robust, efficient and competitive market, and that our arrival will have a significantly positive impact on the lives of people in Singapore.” Let’s just say that the battle is starting soon.

George Yang

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