Grab’s reign over Vietnam ride-hailing market continues

Global market advisory firm ABI Research said Grab completed 62.5 million rides in the first six months of 2020, or 74.6 percent of the market, an increase from last year’s 73 percent.

The market share of FastGo, a Vietnamese competitor, dropped to 0.7 percent from 1 percent.

But, the Covid-19 pandemic came as a huge blow to the market as Grab’s figures showed. Its 62.5 million rides were a mere 20 percent of the 313 million it completed in the first half of last year.

The overall market shrunk to 19.5 percent of last year’s 429.5 million rides.

Two new Vietnamese apps, HCMC-based Viservice’s viApp, and GV Asia’s GV Taxi, made their debuts during the year. But analysts are skeptical about their prospects.

With the ride-hailing field being extremely competitive, even strong players like Grab, Be and Gojek have turned to the food delivery market for profits.

Vietnam was the fourth largest ride-hailing market 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 US$1.1 billion last year and said it could rise to $4 billion by 2025.