Why does the same Grab ride cost $2 in Manila but $18 in Singapore? 🇸🇬🇵ðŸ‡ðŸ‡®ðŸ‡©And why do some people still take it every day in Singapore?
In this episode, we dive into what it’s really like using Grab across Southeast Asia. We’re joined by Denise from the Philippines and Arana from Indonesia as we swap stories about how people get around, order food, and deal with ride-hailing chaos in our respective cities. We also discuss GrabX’s new features and if we need them!
Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcast
Featured materials:Â
My thoughts on Foodpanda’s exit from Thailand, The Low Down
What we saw at the Grab Product showcase, The Low Down
Foodpanda exits Thailand after 13 years – What happened?| The Impulso Podcast E114
[AI-generated Transcript]
[00:00:00] Phyllis: Hi guys. Welcome to the Impulso Podcast by Momentum Works. As you can see, um, our setup today is a little bit different and we obviously have no junk on or no guy for that matter. So we are trying out a different variation of the podcast. So you can just leave a comment below to let us know if this is something that you prefer, if this is something that you wanna see more of. [00:00:19] Phyllis: So Sabrina, during lunch, we were having this conversation. Do some people take, public transport to work every day, or do some people take grab? Because Sabrina and I were speaking about this, we realized that some people actually take like taxi or grab to work every day, right? [00:00:32] Sabrina: Yeah. I have friends that take, grab, essentially grab to work every day. [00:00:37] Phyllis: So today we have Denise and Arana joining us. [00:00:39] Phyllis: Denise is from the Philippines, and Arana is from Indonesia. So this kind of episode will be a little bit more about consumer insights, so, which is why we have them with us. [00:00:50] Sabrina: So I said some context for why, why people take, grab to and from work every day, right? [00:00:55] Sabrina: Mm-hmm. See, essentially the cost of a car in Singapore is very expensive. Mm-hmm. You need to pay like almost a hundred thousand dollars for a certificate to own a car in Singapore, just to own in, in addition. So that’s, you pay for a certificate to own the car, and then you have to buy the car on top of it, and the certificate is a hundred thousand bucks. [00:01:14] Sabrina: So the justification for most people that I hear is that essentially it’s still cheaper to grab everywhere than to buy a car. Right? [00:01:23] Denise: Yeah. [00:01:24] Sabrina: Do you guys take the public transportation work when you are in Singapore? [00:01:27] Denise: No, I just, oh yeah. [00:01:29] Arana: Oh yeah. Public transportation. I use bus and MRT to work. [00:01:31] Phyllis: Mm-hmm. So when you’re in your own countries, do you use private hailing often? [00:01:36] Arana: Yeah. I usually use my own transportation, but if it’s not available, I usually use ride railing apps. [00:01:43] Phyllis: What’s your own transportation like? You drive? [00:01:45] Arana: Yeah. Car. Car. So you drive in Indonesia? Yeah but not that often.. But it’s, there’s so much traffic. So I usually just, I order grab bike or like go check. [00:01:56] Arana: Oh, oh [00:01:57] Denise: yeah, [00:01:57] Arana: that’s, they have Grab bike, [00:01:58] Phyllis: grab bike, [00:01:59] Denise: bike. Oh, we don’t have grab bike, but grab partnered with a local motorcycle hailing app. So they kind of partnered with each other. Move it, it’s called Move It and, but then there’s a lot of other motorcycle healing apps. So Move, it’s relatively new and a lot of people just use the other two, which is ANCA and Joy Ride. [00:02:17] Denise: Yeah. [00:02:18] Phyllis: Have you taken grab in Singapore before? That’s the question. Yes. It’s so expensive. It’s so expensive compared with the grab in Indonesia. Yeah. [00:02:27] Arana: I can’t justify it. Yeah. Okay. [00:02:29] Phyllis: What, what is like an average 20 minute car ride [00:02:33] Denise: in the Philippines? Yeah. [00:02:34] Phyllis: Correct. [00:02:35] Denise: It’s usually just like around how much public transport cost you. [00:02:40] Denise: Yeah. So like $2? Yeah. Two [00:02:42] Arana: to $4. Two [00:02:42] Denise: to $4. [00:02:44] Arana: So you know why [00:02:46] Denise: I’m not gonna take grab? Yeah. Because one time I wanted to grab to work ’cause I just wanted to grab it was $18. $18 is [00:02:55] Phyllis: not bad already. [00:02:58] Denise: Yeah. And if we compare to the press we had in the Philippines, I would. It would never cost that much. Okay. But you have to consider the fact that it’s [00:03:06] Phyllis: during peak hour. [00:03:07] Phyllis: Mm-hmm. So then that, that has a big increase. Do you guys have like peak hour prices? Yeah, we do. Have You see a very big difference? [00:03:14] Denise: No. Our peak hour prices are usually around eight to $9. And that’s peak hours. [00:03:21] Arana: Just a little bit higher, yeah. Than the normal price. [00:03:23] Denise: That’s peak. [00:03:26] Sabrina: I take grab eight to $9 to pick our, actually, you’ll see me on the tree. [00:03:34] Sabrina: Do you take in Singapore? No. Okay. So in Singapore I only take, grab when usually the train, public transport is closed. Mm-hmm. [00:03:41] Sabrina: I’m out late or if I’m going somewhere really, really far Because your, you take public transport in Singapore, so you guys know it’s quite well connected. Yeah, the crab is usually, my crab is like 40. [00:03:54] Sabrina: ’cause usually my crap is like 4:00 AM but I have no other options. [00:03:58] Arana: Youusually
[00:03:59] Sabrina: share with your friends? No. Okay. So noon. Usually when I take crab, you know, it hits that point where I just wanna go home quickly. I don’t care how much I want. I have to pay, I want to get home in the fastest way [00:04:11] Phyllis: possible. [00:04:12] Phyllis: Okay. But I think something to note, right, is like when Singaporean go overseas, like for example, we go, JB, we just grab everywhere. Like it doesn’t matter the distance because it’s just. So much cheaper as compared to here. Yeah. Five gram rights in, let’s say JB right, is the same as one gram right here. [00:04:26] Phyllis: Yeah. Which is just true. [00:04:28] Sabrina: Have you said, what other pets do you use? [00:04:31] Arana: I use Gojek. You use Gojek? Yeah, so I usually alternate between those two to compare the prices, like every, so in Gojek I’ll use Gojek. [00:04:39] Denise: Well, for ours, we really just usually use Grab, but recently there’s been this new ride hailing app called In Drive. [00:04:46] Denise: But because the ui is pretty, not that seamless, people just go back to grab instead. Oh yeah. [00:04:52] Phyllis: What? What do you use? I know like when I usually wanna put a grab ride, which is like, let’s say three 4:00 AM I’ll go between grab, Gojek [00:05:04] Phyllis: Ridiculous. [00:05:11] Sabrina: I waited like 30 minutes. Oh, my rider, like in Singapore before, and then I just, the price difference is like one, two price difference is like one, one. It. [00:05:29] Phyllis: Okay. But I think like in Singapore, most people don’t just use grape for, I mean, everywhere. People don’t just use grape for ride haing. Right. We also order a lot of food deliveries. I know. I definitely order food deliveries on GR a lot more than I take ride Haing because Singaporean public transport, [00:05:44] Arana: you guys use the food, not just, yeah, but I think I used ride hailing more often than the food delivery services. [00:05:54] Phyllis: What, what food delivery apps do you use? Like y’all only have grab. [00:05:57] Denise: Um, we also have food Panda. FoodPanda’s pretty big in the Philippines. Yeah. Foodpanda. Yeah. I think everyone I know like other college students out there in the Philippines, they really just use foodPanda. ’cause grab is a bit more expensive when it comes to food delivery and food. [00:06:12] Denise: Panda has a lot of vouchers, so very student friendly. Yeah. Still in the Philippines? Still in the Philippines. Okay. That’s like [00:06:19] Arana: Indonesia. Yeah. Oh. So we only have grab food and go. Food. And then of [00:06:24] Sabrina: course food. I just exited Thailand as well. Yeah. [00:06:31] Sabrina: Do you use food? [00:06:33] Arana: No, not, I use wood panda for Oh, you for food delivery in Singapore? Mm-hmm. Why? I don’t know. I dunno why though. Yeah. Wait, actually [00:06:45] Sabrina: don’t, do you? No, because. Like I said, I only have bread. [00:06:49] Phyllis: Mm-hmm. [00:06:49] Sabrina: So food delivery and or in one app use grab. [00:06:53] Phyllis: So grab really becomes like a super app for you. [00:06:55] Phyllis: So it, it’s quite like interesting to know how we synonymously link like food delivery or even like Right. Hailing to grab right in Singapore. Is that the case for you guys? [00:07:05] Phyllis: Like for us, we say, oh, you wanna go somewhere? You see? You wanna grab somewhere? Yeah, yeah, yeah, [00:07:09] Sabrina: yeah. I say that we, food delivery, we like, oh, we ought grab, yeah. Yeah. So you guys use, [00:07:15] Arana: yeah. Yeah. So [00:07:15] Sabrina: it’s, we replace it more common. Do you wanna say like, let’s go check somewhere that’s, yeah. We [00:07:21] Arana: alternate to see those two. [00:07:22] Arana: Oh, let’s somewhere. Let’s order for us. It’s [00:07:25] Denise: usually okay. I’ll go home. I’ll just book a grab. Do you wanna grab there? It’s not even taxi anymore. [00:07:31] Phyllis: So we were watching the Grab X recent launch and where Grab had a whole launch on YouTube and they held it actually at JW Met. We all watched it. What do you guys think? Do you guys think you’ll use any of their products? [00:07:44] Arana: I feel like the new like security features and like the grab maps feature would be very useful because usually mm-hmm. Uh, I don’t dunno if it’s the case for you two, but like, usually grab drivers in my country ha, needs to open, like needs to switch [00:08:00] between two apps, like Google Maps or Ways. [00:08:01] Arana: Mm-hmm. And the grab app itself. Mm-hmm. Because like to see the traffic, et cetera. So like it can get confusing and sometimes even the drivers needs to ask the. Passengers, like how to get there. Oh. But then I usually don’t know, so like why do you ask me? [00:08:20] Denise: I think the same also for the Philippines, because once you get into a grab, the grab drivers usually have two phones. So one for grab, and then the other one for Waze. So I think that would be a bit more helpful for them. So they don’t need two phones. And it’s also really weird seeing two phones and then them driving. [00:08:38] Sabrina: I don’t think we need that. Yeah, it makes sense. That’s the reason. So that’s sort one of the reasons why Grab actually invested in building their own, because they operate in Southeast Asia. [00:08:49] Sabrina: Road conditions from country to differ so much like there’s always jam or they’ll work. So having their own map and then the new like driver AI feature also helps. [00:08:59] Sabrina: How about from a consumer like the consumer, more consumer facing products that they have launched? [00:09:06] Denise: I think the feature where you can order with strangers. [00:09:10] Denise: In a similar area. It’s pretty nice because when I usually order gab, I ask everyone that lives in the same building as me, who are my friends, do you want to split the delivery fee with me? And yeah. So I think having that and not having to go through chatting my friends, it’s a long process and it just makes me want not want to order grab anymore. [00:09:32] Denise: So I think that one, [00:09:34] Phyllis: but how much is the delivery fee? [00:09:36] Denise: Oh, it’s usually cheap. Usually like. $1, $2. Yeah. $1, one point 50. [00:09:42] Sabrina: But it’s like, you know, a big thing in like universities in Singapore, so usually when you want to order prep, you’ll ask everyone [00:09:48] Phyllis: Yeah, yeah. To order. Yeah. But the thing for us is also more like economical sense, right? [00:09:54] Phyllis: Mm-hmm. Like let’s say you want to order car poverty, then your delivery fee is already like $4, but your is like five, $6 [00:10:02] Sabrina: if you have people to split the cost. [00:10:09] Sabrina: What feature you see that is interesting. [00:10:11] Phyllis: Okay. I saw one that’s like grab for teens. I mean, my parents no longer pay for my, but I thought it was kind of interesting because then like whatever your team wants to order, you can order for them at any point in time. So like nowadays, you know, um, I think especially young families, right? [00:10:27] Phyllis: They are both working parents, so then they are working, then the children are at home. So now the child can order on their own. And then they can track, like the parents can track the driver, the parents can track what they order, the parents can pay for them. [00:10:38] Phyllis: So I think that that makes it a lot easier for them. But I mean, I’m neither of those study. I’m neither a parent. No, my parent for me. Interesting. It was very interesting to me because imagine I had this like when was in primary school? Same. Yeah. I think [00:10:53] Sabrina: the parents can order for kids.[00:11:00] [00:11:00] Sabrina: It makes that. You can sort of track your kids [00:11:04] Arana: if it, if it was launched years ago, I think my dad would be really happy. It would’ve helped. It would be helpful. Really, I [00:11:10] Phyllis: think. [00:11:10] Arana: I think [00:11:10] Phyllis: my dad [00:11:11] Arana: would not be [00:11:11] Phyllis: happy because [00:11:12] Arana: I’ll abuse, abuse the ordering because he used to not let me use ride healing apps. Oh. [00:11:19] Arana: ’cause of the security concerns and stuff? Oh yeah. He would usually order taxis. Mm-hmm. Like we have Bluebird back in Indonesia. Mm-hmm. So he would usually just order, like call a taxi. If no one is able to like pick me up and stuff. [00:11:32] Sabrina: Oh, so he wouldn’t use write like he wouldn’t trust when I was a teen. [00:11:36] Sabrina: Yeah. Competitive fix. [00:11:37] Arana: Yeah. Yeah. [00:11:38] Sabrina: That’s interesting because I always have this conception that Right, for the apps are safer than, [00:11:42] Phyllis: yeah. [00:11:42] Sabrina: Correct. I don’t know [00:11:43] Phyllis: if this is it a s So the next question I was gonna ask is, do you guys have a lot of like, um, incidents with Brett in your countries, like safety concerns [00:11:52] Denise: I guess for my country there are a couple of grab horror stories and people just. [00:11:56] Denise: Because Facebook is a really big social media platform there and they just post [00:12:00] it there. So I guess that’s why the teen feature, the safety teen feature helps out a lot. ’cause the people that usually post those horror stories are high school students. Oh yeah. Okay. So I think that would be really helpful. [00:12:12] Denise: Thank you. Grab, [00:12:15] Phyllis: wait. Like we did this feature grab also launched like this AI thing, right? Where they can detect the, the noise, the audio in the car. Maybe if someone in the class is like, help, help or something like that, then you’ll send. [00:12:37] Sabrina: Notification. Don’t do this guys. I’m really sure someone would do it. But it’s interesting because I feel in Singapore, the conception is the idea that generally ride hilling is a lot safer than taking a taxi. Mm-hmm. Because Ride Hilling, you can see on the app like who your driver is, anything you can report to the app. As compared to if you’re just here, a taxi of the street, you don’t know who’s the driver. Maybe it’s like some random stranger came. That’s [00:13:00] true. Yeah. But in. Your country is the other way around. Oh, not that you started. Oh, it used to be the other way [00:13:06] Denise: around. Um, I think a lot of people really do use Grab ’cause it’s safer, but then just because of the horror stories, people just, oh yeah. [00:13:15] Phyllis: Yeah. I think to address this, they also build Grab X, which is like their premium, right? Hailing. So they’re trying to build their own taxi fleet. Right. [00:13:24] Sabrina: Singapore. Oh, this is, um, what’s different is, so the supply and demand, I think there’s a lot higher supply of drivers or in other countries. [00:13:34] Sabrina: Mm-hmm. But Singapore, because of the high cost of that cars, it’s a lot harder to get that many drivers. [00:13:40] Phyllis: And I think that’s why, right. Like we wait for, grab a lot longer than we have to wait in other countries. Oh. So like if we get a grab in jbl, like, or Indonesia, we usually wait like two to three minutes before we get a car. [00:13:52] Phyllis: But in Singapore it’s like. Seven, 10 minutes minimum. [00:13:56] Sabrina: But the supply, [00:14:01] Phyllis: so I also saw that there was this feature called Dine Out Discovery. I know you tried it out, right? I know you tried. I’ve [00:14:07] Sabrina: tried. So, okay. This was the feature that I was most excited about ’cause it’s very similar to Campaign in China. Yes. So it’s actually, it’s like a map and then you can see near you like what are merchants, like fme places that are on grab that have like deals and all. [00:14:21] Sabrina: So obviously as someone that likes to go and eat, this is the best cause I can just see what’s near me and then I can go and eat. And I think the good thing about Grab is that they also acquired chop. So now you can make reservations for those restaurants, and if you need, you can book a car to the restaurant as well. [00:14:36] Sabrina: So it’s really like every super app, so [00:14:40] Arana: convenient and somehow convenient for us. [00:14:43] Sabrina: How it works is, is actually,, grab has been developing grab maps and it’s been more of a backend thing, right? So it’s been more of helping their riders and their drivers through the rounding and the matching. [00:14:52] Sabrina: But now it’s also on the. This is, I guess, using credit maps on the consumer side, and of course also showing the users, like merchants that are nearby. Mm-hmm. And then of course they are D out use, which is something that they’ve been doing, but I don’t think people, do you guys use like dine out on grip? [00:15:10] Sabrina: No, not really. No, not really. Yeah, it’s a very, like, [00:15:14] Phyllis: it’s not something, I mean they’re actively, actively pushing, but it’s quite ironic ’cause like usually you use good to order in [00:15:21] Sabrina: to look for options. But I guess that the whole purpose of dialogue, discovery, right? Because obviously now Covid is over I the trend is shifting back more towards eating out. [00:15:32] Sabrina: Eating out, yeah. So they’re also trying to see like what they can do. So I think this item on discovery is kind of their. I dunno. I’ve been trying it out, but I think maybe the map is still not right. [00:15:42] Arana: Oh. Oh. One time I actually went to a restaurant in Singapore and the waiters actually offered me like to use Oh, the graph, the deals. [00:15:49] Arana: Oh. And she like took time to teach me how to use the dental deals. So, yeah. So you got a discount? Yeah, I got a discount on my.[00:16:00] [00:16:01] Sabrina: I really think like crap. Dialogue is a like very underutilized feature. Nobody, yeah. Yeah. They had to push it out. [00:16:09] Arana: We must use, [00:16:12] Sabrina: so usually when you use, in the past, you don’t know which restaurants have you, so it’s only usually when you go to the restaurant and then the waiter recommends it to you. Then you’re like, oh, I can get this help. [00:16:23] Sabrina: But like with the new DUP discovery, the map and all, you can already see like near you what restaurant have discuss. Mm-hmm. Then you can go there and use your grip. [00:16:33] Phyllis: That’s actually not bad. Maybe Y should and try it. Maybe [00:16:37] Denise: I’ll try [00:16:37] Phyllis: it. Yeah. Oh, something else. Like thinking about, right. Let’s just know when Orana said her parents. [00:16:43] Phyllis: Like didn’t let her take Right. Healing. ’cause it was dangerous, right? I was thinking like in Singapore, sometimes when I take, I have to lie to my friends about it. Not because it’s dangerous, but because I don’t know to tell them I spend money on, [00:16:55] Arana: For you guys home, it’s very bad. Like it’s bad. You also need to take like, [00:17:00] um, a motorcycle ride. Yeah. To get to the RT station. Oh, it’s usually like that. [00:17:05] Sabrina: About Vietnamese times because I think the Metro in Ho Chi Min City just opened, right? Mm-hmm. So I was asking her like, how is it. Useful. And she’s like, honestly, most of the time she has to take a grab through the Metro and take from the metro. So she, [00:17:19] Arana: it’s a [00:17:19] Sabrina: hassle. She should just take. [00:17:27] Phyllis: Okay. Um, I guess that’s the end of our episode. Thank you guys for tuning into another episode of the Impost Podcast. Uh, if you enjoyed this episode, do give us a thumbs up and leave a comment if you like this format, and also subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on the latest happenings and trends in tech, new retail, and the broader digital economy. [00:17:46] Phyllis: Bye [00:17:46] Sabrina: bye.
