The Jakarta-based company will invest US$500 million to expand to Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.
In a statement released earlier this week, Go-Jek announced their plans to world media. The Go-Jek app allows users to hail cars and bikes, have food delivered and make mobile payments. The company plans to begin offering ride-sharing services in these new markets in the “next few months” and implement other services at an unspecified later date.
The arrival of Go-Jek should help fill the void left by Uber’s recent departure from the country when it merged with Grab. Rumors have spread across the region for quite some time, fueled in part by reports of Go-Jek hiring local staff and poaching former Uber employees. “With competition, service offering will be much better, all the players are forced to provide the best customer experience. That will be advantageous for the consumer," Go-Jek President Andre Soelistyo told CNBC.
To compete against Grab, Go-Jek plans to rely on local partnerships to create flexible branding and identities tailored to native preferences. Go-Jek CEO and Founder Nadiem Makarim explained: “We believe the best way for us to expand internationally is by partnering with talented local teams who share our vision and know exactly what will work best in their home countries […] Our role will be to act as advisors, giving the new companies the benefit of our operational and development experience so they can take the spirit with which we created Go-Jek and find the best way to achieve that locally.”
“Consumers are happiest when they have choice and at the moment, people in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines don’t feel that they’re getting enough when it comes to ride-hailing," Makarim added. "We hope that as we arrive in new markets, we will quickly become everyone’s go-to lifestyle app."
The expansion comes after a massive fundraising haul of approximately US$1.5 billion from investors including Google, JD, Meituan-Dianping, Tencent and Temasek. The startup is currently valued at US$5 billion.
[Photo via Go-Jek Engineering]
