Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (May 18): Although rival Uber is now out of the picture in the country, ride-hailing platform operator Grab says it has yet to feel it has an advantage to capitalise on its monopolistic position in the market. 

“There will always be competition in this market, whether they are other transport network operators or public transportation or more importantly, our biggest competitor is actually car ownership,” he told reporters at press briefing today.

Goh said Grab is currently focusing on improving its services so that more people are willing to share their cars, thus as a result, reduce car ownership. 

“The challenge with our marketplace is that there is no monopoly dynamics, because we have to look after both passenger and drivers,” Goh said. 

When Uber exited the market back in March, users were expecting Grab to capitalise on its monopoly position and change its level of prices, he added. 

But this was not possible, as passengers would want prices to be low, while drivers would want a higher price. Goh said such dynamics have kept Grab in check, in terms of pricing. 

Earlier, Goh revealed Grab will introduce GrabFood (food delivery) and GrabPay (mobile wallet) within the same mobile app to Malaysia soon. 

GrabFood is being pilot tested and is expecting a full launch by the end of this month. It is now only available in selected areas like Sri Hartamas, Bangsar, Mont Kiara and Bukit Damansara. The service will open up to other places in the Klang Valley later.

Food delivery is a natural extension of Grab's transport offerings, and these services can be enabled by one GrabPay, to bring about greater convenience for consumers. 

GrabFood and GrabPay were the next major steps in Grab’s move to holistically serve the daily essential needs of its platform users, Goh said. Grab envisions to be a platform with seamless mobility for on-demand food delivery, logistics, cashless payments and financial services for the people of Malaysia and Southeast Asia. 

“By building a technology platform that serves the most important everyday lifestyle needs of our consumers, we are benefitting an entire ecosystem of connected users who are not only passengers and driver partners, but also increasingly merchants and delivery partners.

“We can help everyone — particularly micro-entrepreneurs such as driver-partners, merchants, small and medium-sized enterprises — grow their businesses and serve consumers better with how each of our service is interlinked,” Goh said. 

Beyond transport and food, Grab will expand the use of GrabPay as a mobile wallet to enable consumers to pay at traditional, cash-based merchants in the coming months.

“In the past, our goal was really to serve more people, and I think that value still holds true. But our goal now is to actually serve them better and in many more ways,” Goh added. 

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