Compete with Grab, Gojek Intensively Adds New Services in Singapore

Gojek will add new services in Singapore in the next few months. This is done to expand market share and compete with the host decacorn, Grab.

General Manager of Gojek Singapore, Lien Choong Luen, said the company plans to introduce more services in Singapore, apart from ride-hailing services. “This will be done in the next few months,” he was quoted as saying by Channel News Asia, Monday (15/11).

However, Lien did not specify what services Gojek would develop in the neighboringcountry. He only said that the new service will be revealed after the launch date is confirmed.

In 2019, Gojek’s Co-CEO, now GoTo CEO, Andre Soelistyo, mentioned the plan to expand services in Singapore. In addition to transportation services, Gojek will offer food delivery (food delivery), basic necessities (groceries) to finance, like its competitor Grab.

However, Andre at that time said that Gojek would carefully expand its services in Singapore. Lien said that the expansion of the service was supported by the merger of Gojekwith Tokopedia and the formation of a new entity, GoTo in Indonesia.

“This is very good news,” said Lien. According to him, the merger will add a lot of energy in improving capabilities in all markets.

Moreover, GoTo has received an injection of US$ 1.3 billion or around Rp. 18.6 trillion in pre-IPO fundraising, including from investors from the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Optimistic that Gojek will be able to Expand the Market in Singapore

He is also optimistic that Gojek will be able to expand its market in Singapore, because currently Gojek only focuses on two foreign markets. Previously, Gojek had divested its business operations in Thailand to AirAsia for US$ 50 million.

This country’s Decacorn decided to let go of its operations in the Land of the White Elephant to focus on working on the Singapore and Vietnam markets.

“This allows Gojek to allocate, not only more investment funds but also resources such as manpower and in this country,” said Lien.

Lien said that Gojek’s market share in Singapore continues to increase. The number of driver-partners increased by 48% in September compared to last year (year on year/yoy). In June, Gojek reduced its revenue-sharing fee for driver-partners in Singapore from 20% to 10%.

This is so that driver-partners do not depend on incentives. Gojek Singapore also applies a fixed fare of S$ 3 or around IDR 32 thousand for pick-ups of three kilometers or more. In addition, set a new daily peak hour target.

The on-demand service provider company claims that the policy will increase partners’ revenue by up to S$100 or IDR 1 million during peak hours. The new rules will take effect on June 21 and last until at least 2022.

Present in Several Countries

Gojek has been present in Singapore since January 2019. Apart from Singapore, Gojek expanded into Vietnam under the name GoViet in 2018. Then, in the middle of last year, the company changed its name in the Vietnamese market to Gojek.

The Decacorn has also piloted transportation services in Malaysia by partnering with a local company, Dego Ride, early last year. Gojek CEO Kevin Aluwi also said that the company plans to invest heavily outside Indonesia this year.

“This is the year when we really want to expand, to become a regional and global company,” he said on CNBC International’s ‘Squawk Box Asia’ program, quoted in January (27/1).

Kevin said that the company wants to develop its business in Southeast Asia. “One of the main focuses this year is to really expand our footprint beyond Indonesia,” he said.

Kevin said that the investment issued by Gojek outside Indonesia was relatively small. On the one hand, markets in several countries in Southeast Asia are starting to recover amid the coronavirus pandemic. “We really think that 2021 will be a year of growth,” he said.