Ride-hailing service Uber has made its exit from Southeast Asia — and now the battle between two of region’s most valuable start-ups is beginning.
Go-Jek, Indonesia’s first “unicorn” — tech-speak for a startup that’s believed to be valued at $1 billion or more — is taking the competition to rival Grab’s home turf in Singapore.
Go-Jek launched the beta version of its ride-hailing app in Singapore on Thursday. The early, test version of the app will let customers book rides, though they can only be picked up and dropped off within a number of limited areas currently.
Despite that, the Indonesian company is confident of its ability to attract customers in Singapore.
Go-Jek’s global head of transport Raditya Wibowo said the beta phase will commence with a few thousand riders, but the company hopes to serve “hundreds of thousands” of users before its full launch, expected to be in early 2019.
The start-up is working with DBS, one of Asia’s largest banks which claims millions of customers in Singapore. The partnership means that DBS customers will get priority in using the Go-Jek app ahead of others and will receive credit for their first two rides.
Go-Jek president Andre Soelistyo told reporters in Singapore that the company will give promotion codes initially, but stressed that it wants to differentiate itself in the “little details.”
“In the last four years of our life in Indonesia, we’ve fought two big giants, and we’ve been able to continue to be the most dominant player in Indonesia. I think we have some tricks in our sleeves to be able to compete with some of them,” he said.
Go-Jek dominates in Indonesia, which has a population of more than 260 million people and is the fourth-most populous country in the world. It processes more than 100 million transactions for its 20 to 25 million monthly users.
Wealthy and much smaller Singapore is part of Go-Jek’s plan to expand in Southeast Asia. The company said it will invest about $500 million in the region, and it recently launched motorbike ride-hailing services and food delivery in Vietnam. The company says it’s poised to enter Thailand and the Philippines as well.
The company said it still sees a need to invest heavily in Southeast Asia.
“We’re still in the investing phase, which means that the company is not yet profitable, although some products are profitable,” Soelistyo said.
Go-Jek has raised more than $2 billion from investors since 2016, much of it from very big names: Google, Chinese tech giants Tencent and Meituan-Dianping, as well Singapore’s Temasek Holdings.
Go-Jek’s entry into Singapore will bring it head to head with Grab, which is headquartered in Singapore. Grab offers services similar to Go-Jek’s, such as food delivery and mobile payments.
Grab has garnered more than $6 billion in funding and is backed by SoftBank, Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing and Toyota.