Two execs quit ride-hailing firm Go-Viet

By Vien Thong March 30, 2019 | 04:52 pm PT

The management of Go-Viet's day-to-day work will be handled by the company's remaining leaders. Photo by VnExpress

Go-Viet has confirmed that its general director and deputy general director have quit their positions.

General director Nguyen Vu Duc and deputy general director Nguyen Bao Linh have resigned from their positions, the Vietnamese ride-sharing firm announced Friday.

The two would continue to work as advisors for Go-Viet and its Indonesian counterpart Go-Jek from Vietnam, while the management of Go-Viet's day-to-day work will be handled by the company's remaining leaders, it said.

Phung Tuan Duc, Go-Viet's managing director, said the company would continue working closely with Duc and Linh to help develop the platform.

According to Deal Street Asia, the news of Duc and another of Go-Viet's senior directors resigning was already announced internally earlier this week. The news site also claimed the two had demanded large sums of money in compensation upon resigning, but the company did not comment on this.

Nguyen Vu Duc graduated from Harvard University, the U.S., with a master's degree in business administration and worked for nearly a decade at a major bank in Vietnam. In 2014, he helped deploy ride-hailing firm Uber's services in Vietnam and went on to launch a fintech firm in 2015-2018.

Duc eventually returned to the ride-sharing market as co-founder and CEO of Go-Viet, which began operations last August. At press meetings, he has said that Go-Viet was a Vietnamese startup with funding and technology support from Go-Jek.

Duc and Linh's resignations have come at a time when Go-Viet has been stagnating in all its services - ride-sharing, food delivery and package delivery. Since the start of this month, the company has cut its drivers' revenue to 20 percent, prompting many drivers to consider switching to another ride-sharing service.

Meanwhile, its main competitor Grab has been expanding its food delivery service and its cashless payment service GrabPay by Moca, which now has new features allowing users to pay electricity, water and phone bills.

The Be Group, the latest ride-sharing market entrant in Vietnam, has announced it has recruited over 15,000 drivers in just three months and is planning to expand its presence to 22 provinces and municipalities this year.