Exclusive | Grab looks to avoid a price war with ride-hailing rival Go-Jek as it focuses on safe, reliable services
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Singapore consumers eagerly awaiting a price war to erupt between ride-hailing giant Grab and Indonesian rival Go-Jek, which is poised to enter the city next month, should not hold their breath.
Grab plans to take a cautious approach and push to further improve its services, rather than drive up subsidies, as competition with Go-Jek intensifies in its home market and across Southeast Asia, company president Ming Maa said in an interview at the China Conference organised by the South China Morning Post in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month.
“We do not believe that winning customer heartshare and mindshare is driven by subsidies,” he said. “It’s driven by providing them good service and a good product.”
The 41-year-old Maa, who joined Grab two years ago from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, said the Singapore-based company spends significantly less on subsidies “by a very, very wide margin”, citing its track record against Uber Technologies before their merger in March this year.
Maa’s comments come after Grab and Uber were slapped a combined S$13 million (US$9.4 million) fine last month by Singapore’s antitrust watchdog for anti-competitive behaviour as a result of their merger, which had effectively made Grab the city state’s dominant ride-hailing player with about 80 per cent market share.