Go-Viet, the Vietnamese affiliate of Indonesian ride-hailing company Go-Jek, has started piloting its Go-Food food delivery services in the country.
The pilot, launched on November 20, started in Ho Chi Minh City and is expected to be officially rolled out across major cities in the country soon, according to Nguyen Bao Linh, deputy head of business development at Go-Viet.
According to a report on Deal Street Asia, Southeast Asia’s second ride-hailing unicorn expanded to Vietnam only a couple of months ago as part of a $500-million expansion plan to conquer international markets, including Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines.
Vietnam as its first market outside Indonesia has so far witnessed the foray of Go-Bike and Go-Send.
In the food delivery segment, the current major players are Delivery Now, which is backed by Singapore-based Sea Limited, and GrabFood, which launched its service in June 2018. Small operating startups include Lala.vn and VietnammGom.
“Vietnamese customers are excited to try new things, and will choose a food delivery platform that offers the most dependable service providing the widest range of food offerings with best value-for-money and fastest speed of delivery,” Jerry Lim, country head of Grab in Vietnam, said at the GrabFood launch in Hanoi last month.
Meanwhile, Go-Jek founder Nadiem Makarim has previously said that Vietnam was its door to Southeast Asia expansion, thanks to the country’s large mobile phone users, massive population and high motorbike ownership.
After gaining a foothold in Vietnam, Go-Jek is working on the Thailand and Philippines markets and will kick off a beta launch in Singapore in December.
According to the latest report on Southeast Asia’s internet economy by Google and Temasek, the online food delivery market is projected to reach over $8 billion by 2025.
Reporting by Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc