As rumours surfaced that Google, Singapore’s Temasek Holding and Meituan are joining with other investors to pump a reported US$1.2 billion into Go-Jek; we wonder what the team at Grab’s planning session held at the ShangriLa Jakarta think?
Grab is not short of it’s own investments, and it’s yet another example of how the Southeast Asia ride hailing war is quickly escalating.
Let’s have a quick look at some discussion points from this announcement:
- Google was an early investor of Uber, but this is their first investment in the Southeast Asia ride hailing/sharing economy. With Softbank investing in ride hailing platforms all over the world (Uber, Ola, Grab, 99 Taxis and Didi) with the aim of amassing transport data, Google is trying to ensure that Softbank don’t have everything their way.
- More than 90% of mobile phones in Indonesia are Android OS, so investing in Go-Jek that is on a huge number of phones when almost all phones use your OS in a country of over 260 million people, is a good match
- Go-Jek is spending 10s of millions on implementing and improving GoPay, what expertise will Google (through their Android Pay product) be able to provide?
- Meituan Dianping is challenging Didi in China through their own ride hailing service. This is now spreading outside of China where Didi is a major investor of Grab.
As always, these are just our thoughts, we’d be happy to hear yours at hello@mworks.asia
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