Homegrown ride-hailing app FastGo just announced that it’s preparing for a launch in Myanmar and Indonesia.
Vietnam’s transportation app market is undoubtedly the country’s most heated and volatile battleground right now. Every day, we wake up to news of companies launching a new ride-hailing service, then closing it, then restarting it again. Now, Vietnamese company FastGo shared with Nikkei Asian Review that it’s expanding to other ASEAN markets, with Indonesia and Myanmar as priorities.
To recap, FastGo started in Hanoi as a purely car-hailing service in June. Then, it officially launched in Saigon in August with services for cars and motorbikes. As of October, the blue-tinted ride app is operating in Hanoi, Da Nang and Saigon, offering technology to book bikes, cars and taxis. According to Nikkei, it claimed to have a current reach of 20% of the local market with a fleet of some 30,000 drivers.
The app doesn’t charge drivers commission rates but takes a flat fee of VND30,000 if drivers earn more than VND400,000 a day. Based on a glance at FastGo’s interface, it appears that its prices are comparable to that of Grab.
Unlike Go-Viet and Grab, which have foreign roots, FastGo is a creation of Vietnamese tech startup MPOS Vietnam Technology, founded by the app’s CEO Nguyen Huu Tuat. MPOS is no stranger to the ride-hailing market: before coming up with FastGo, it provided the technology and platforms for Mai Linh in Vietnam and Blue Bird in Indonesia, both taxi companies.
In August, the tech-focused venture branch of VinaCapital invested US$3 million in FastGo in the first round of fundraising and the ride-hailing company is hoping to raise US$50 million in the next round. It plans to reach 30% market share in Indonesia and Myanmar after six months while expanding to 20 cities in Vietnam by the end of next year.
[Photo via Nikkei Asian Review]
