Indonesia ride-hailing firm Go-Jek launches in Vietnam, MVL next in line

By Dat Nguyen August 2, 2018 | 08:30 pm PT

A driver and passenger ride on a motorbike, part of the Go-Jek ride-hailing service, on a busy street in central Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo by Reuters/Darren Whiteside/FIle Photo

Indonesian company Go-Jek Wednesday launched its service in Vietnam, where Grab dominates the market.

In its first international foray outside Indonesia Go-Jek has dubbed itself Go-Viet, and its app is available to download on both Apple and Android.

Go-Viet now offers motorbikes and delivery services in 12 districts of Ho Chi Minh City.

It is unclear when the services will be expanded to the rest of HCMC and to Hanoi.

“We did a successful pilot of Go-Viet and received a lot of positive feedback,” Nguyen Vu Duc, CEO of Go-Viet, said.

The Vietnam launch is part of Go-Jek’s $500-million plan to expand in Southeast, including to Thailand in September and the Philippines before the end of this year.

The company plans to try a different strategy from Grab by tailoring its services to each country with a different name and local teams, which it believes have more understanding of local needs.

Founded in 2010 Go-Jek has so far raised over $1.5 billion from investors like Google and China’s Tencent Holdings, according to Reuters.

Starting out as a phone-based motorbike ride-hailing app, Go-Jek is now a digital platform which offers transportation, logistics and delivery services.

Go-Jek is not the only company vying for a spot in Vietnam’s transport market, with Singapore-based blockchain-powered ride-hailing app MVL also on the verge of entering.

Since Uber left in April, Grab has dominated the market, with authorities investigating possible breaches of anti-trust laws.