Vietnam ride-hailing market sees new entrant

Ho Chi Minh City-based GV Asia JSC announced at the launch of the app on Tuesday that it targets partnering with 8,000 drivers and doing 60,000 trips per day during the six-month test period.

The app has GV Car, GV Bike, GV Taxi, and GV Truck (logistics service).

It will start offering motorbike and car services in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from early July though the company has yet to reveal the exact launch date.

It then plans to begin delivery services in the first quarter of 2021 and food delivery in the next quarter, Hoang Quang Manh, director of GV Asia, said.

The fare will be VND5,000 (22 cents) per kilometer for motorbikes and from VND11,000 (45 cents) for cars and taxis.

An expert who asked not to be named said the launch of a new ride-hailing app at this time when the market is relatively saturated is a difficult task.

Since Uber exited Vietnam in 2018 the ride-hailing market has seen new players enter, but Grab remains the dominant player with a 73 percent market share, according to the U.S.’s ABI Research.

Local app Be was in second place with 16 percent, followed by Indonesia’s Go-Viet with 10.3 percent.

Vietnam’s ride-hailing market was the fourth largest in Southeast Asia last year behind Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, according to a report by Google, Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek and U.S. management consultancy Bain.

ABI Research estimated the market at $1.1 billion last year and said it could rise to $4 billion by 2025.