Say goodbye to GoViet and hello to Gojek.
Ride-hailing company GoViet announced recently that it would merge the brand and app GoViet with Gojek, its Indonesia-based parent company. The company will now be called Gojek Vietnam. Nikkei Asian Review reports that the same change is also in the works for Gojek’s Thai subsidiary, Get. The rebranding is part of a major effort to unify Gojek’s branding abroad and improve the fluidity of usage across Southeast Asia.
"Going forward, we can better serve the market and bring even greater business to each country by unifying tech and brands," Gojek Head of International Andrew Lee shared with Nikkei. "This has been in the making for many months. We started on the strategy to upgrade, to get to scale more efficiently, better serve the customers in these markets, since well into mid-last year."
Gojek launched its subsidiary in Vietnam, GoViet, in August 2018, and was initially available in just a few districts of Saigon. The service now caters to riders in both Hanoi and Saigon via its three main functions: motorbike-hailing (GoBike), food delivery (GoFood), and general delivery (GoSend). Tuoi Tre reports that the app currently partners with some 150,000 drivers and 80,000 eateries. A similar app called Get was unveiled in Thailand in 2019.
According to Gojek Founder Nadiem Makarim, the company arrived in Vietnam under the name GoViet because it hoped that the local presence would determine its own identity. Now, the move has proven to be of mixed results, as users have to download and sign up for separate apps while traveling in the region. Grab, on the other hand, has been using the same platform for cross-country services.
Nikkei notes that the change will not affect GoViet’s ownership structure in the country, though Gojek also appointed a new CEO for Gojek Vietnam, Phung Tuan Duc. He’s a co-founder of the Vietnamese subsidiary and its former COO.
[Photo via Tuoi Tre]
