Anuchit Nguyen and Yoolim Lee, Bloomberg
Southeast Asian banks are investing in the region's biggest ridehailing rivals, Go-Jek and Grab, to hitch a ride on their expansion into financial services. These unicorns have moved beyond ridehailing, with payments being a hotly-contested battleground.
1 month ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
The vision of global, interconnected ridehailing is sweet, and Asian player Grab wants to lead the way. But there is good reason to be skeptical.
2 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
What if you could use your everyday ridehailing app anywhere in the world? No more cumbersome downloads of another app or losing loyalty points from your app. That’s what Grab wants to achieve with its investment in Splyt. Too good to be true?
2 months ago
Pavel Alpeyev, Bloomberg
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is a big believer in Uber, and the company's upcoming initial public offering will make him and his company richer. But it sounds like he's thinking about the more lucrative rewards further down the line.
4 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Uber certainly isn't making a profit yet, which isn't the worst thing in the world, considering the mammoth market opportunity. Still, investors in its initial public offering should know it could take several years before that red ink turns black.
4 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
In the face of a fast-growing and innovative rival, Grab’s foray into travel, starting with hotels, could give it an edge over archrival Go-Jek, which does not do travel — yet.
4 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Consumers in the West reach almost reflexively for the Google Maps app as the service becomes a nearly ubiquitous utility despite a dearth of messaging and payments. Whether it evolves into the next superapp may depend on whether users really want a do-everything app and the mood of regulators seeking to break up big tech.
4 months ago
Yoolim Lee and Pavel Alpeyev, Bloomberg
Already a major investor in Singapore's Grab, SoftBank is pumping in more big money into the ridehailing company, which is in a two-horse race with Indonesia's Go-Jek to gain dominance in Southeast Asia. We're tightening our seat belts watching this epic battle.
6 months ago
Yoolim Lee, Claire Jiao and Cecilia Yap, Bloomberg
The oldest and largest conglomerate in the Philippines, whose business is primarily real estate and hotels, is investing in technology companies. Go-Jek is likely next. That would end Grab's monopoly in the Philippines.
6 months ago
Yoolim Lee, Crystal Tse and Joyce Koh, Bloomberg
This is a battle of titans in the ridehailing sector in Southeast Asia. And with Go-Jek and Grab angling to become the region's super-app, providing a plethora of services from insurance to payment, describing them as ridehailing players will soon no longer do.
6 months ago
Dennis Schaal, Skift
Expedia is an opportunistic company, and mergers and acquisitions are part of its DNA. The company has been quiet on this front for the past three years. It is sort of due to make another big splash.
6 months ago
Yoolim Lee and Natnicha Chuwiruch, Bloomberg
Thailand’s Central Group, which owns hotels, restaurants, supermarkets and department stores, now wants to grab a piece of ride hailing. Why not? For one, imagine the promotions it can push, via the Grab Thailand app, to a captive audience sitting restless in snarling traffic.
7 months ago