GrabFood Prepares Three Strategies to Strengthen the Food Delivery

Competition in the food delivery service business is getting tighter after the e-commerce company Shopee entered this sector. Grab’s on-demand service prepares three technology strategies to dominate market share in Southeast Asia.

Head of Engineering Deliveries Grab Xiaole Kuang said the company continues to develop platform technology. “We build and evaluate the technology we have to provide the best experience for users,” he said during a Grab Tech Insider discussion on Wednesday (3/3).

First, provide a local touch in which the display on the application page is different in each country. “This is so that the platform can focus on customer interest based on the consumption patterns of each country,” he said.

In addition to pages, content on various displays, such as banners, categories, and pins containing images or carousels, also adjusts for a local touch. Second, to provide recommendations for alternative order options to consumers.

If the user is unable to find the food he is looking for, the application will look for similar merchant partners based on the similarity of keywords on the menu. The recommendations provided by GrabFood rely on machine learning capabilities.

Third, personalized applications. Apart from recommendations, Grab is also developing the ability to make applications closer to users, based on the things they like. Grab uses artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence / AI) technology, for example, to display merchant partners who best match the user’s profile when entering the application.

Competition in the Food Delivery Business in Indonesia is Getting Stronger

The food delivery business has become increasingly fierce with the entry of Shopee Food in Indonesia since April last year. Shopee began looking for a driver-partner for Shopee Food in November 2020. Shopee’s parent, Sea Group, began preparations for entering the business by acquiring Foody Corporation to provide food delivery services in Vietnam under the name Now in 2017.

Previously, there were two main players in online food delivery services, namely Gojek with GoFood and Grab with GrabFood. Momentum Works research states, in Indonesia GrabFood has controlled a market share of 53% followed by GoFood with a market share of 47%.

Momentum Works also estimates that the gross transaction value or GMV of GrabFood is US$ 5.9 billion (IDR 83 trillion) in 2020, while GoFood is US$ 2 billion (IDR 28 trillion). The estimated GMV value is based on an in-depth analysis of the food delivery industry in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Research methods include interviews, surveys, and data from third-party monitoring services. Momentum Works COO Yorlin Ng said that to be able to compete in the food delivery business, the large number of menu choices, speed, quality and cost were the main things that were of concern. He said, both Grab and Gojek both benefited because their business model was a super application or a super app compared to Shopee, which is an e-commerce company.

This can encourage customers to share rides (ride-hailing) to use other services. In addition, it can take advantage of existing infrastructure including payment and delivery. “So, it is more cost-effective and sustainable in this area,” he said last January (28/1).

Helping Indonesian MSMEs Survive the Middle of a Pandemic

Grab Indonesia, which is the leading all-in-one application in Southeast Asia, has officially collaborated with the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises of the Republic of Indonesia (KemenkopUKM) to support the expansion of digitalization and economic opportunities for millions of MSMEs in Indonesia who are struggling against the Covid-19 challenge who was walking.

Grab helps tens of thousands of MSMEs to increase online visibility and increase sales by providing special free advertisements on the main page of the application.

Apart from helping tens of thousands of MSMEs increase their sales online, the business growth of GrabFood’s merchant partners and GrabKios agents is so that they can recruit more workers from the surrounding environment.