Indonesia’s ride-hailing giant Go-Jek will conduct a five-day trial of two of its services, Go-Bike and Go-Send, in some districts of Ho Chi Minh City on July 18, local media reported.
In June, Go-Jek launched two locally founded companies in Vietnam (Go-Viet) and Thailand (GET) to mark the first wave of its international expansion. Both companies will be run by local founding management teams with Go-Jek providing expertise as well as technology and investment.
Go-Viet will officially launch in Ho Chi Minh City in early September. After the testing, Go-Viet will be widely deployed in Ho Chi Minh City and quickly expanded to Hanoi as well as other provinces in the country.
“Our strategy is to combine the world-class technology developed by GO-Jek, with the in-depth market knowledge and expertise of the local teams, to create local businesses that really understand consumers. We believe that these in-country teams have the knowledge and experience to make the businesses in Vietnam and Thailand a huge success,” said Go-Jek CEO and founder Nadiem Makarim.
With the aim of becoming the largest multi-service platform in Vietnam, Go-Viet will start with the service of transport and goods delivery first, then food delivery, e-payment and other services, Nguyen Vu Duc, CEO of Go-Viet was quoted as saying by local media Cafe.vn.
In October last year, Go-Jek founder and CEO Nadiem Makarim announced plans for the startup to operate in four other member countries of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) but did not specify the targeted countries.
Apart from Indonesia and the Philippines, Southeast Asia comprises Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, East Timor and Myanmar.
Vietnam would be the third market overall for Go-Jek as it already holds a stake in Bangladesh’s ride-sharing app Pathao.
Go-Jek’s competitor Grab, meanwhile, is continuing to expand its foothold in the region. By the end of June, it launched GrabPay mobile wallet with GrabPay Credits in Malaysia and is eyeing more partnerships with local service providers.
By Quynh Nguyen
Source: Dealstreetasia