Raini Hamdi, Skift
Closing islands for a rehab seems fashionable in Southeast Asia. It shouldn’t be. Authorities must first assess options carefully, and by no means should premature announcements be made. Just look at the Komodo Island example and the wrong messages Indonesia has sent about one of its most unique tourism assets.
6 months ago
Yoolim Lee, Bloomberg
Gojek's optimism it will raise $2 billion by the year's end is not misplaced. Though the funding is less than half of Grab's $4.5 billion, Gojek has its strengths. It is more creative, expanding into medicine and massage delivery even, and is more marketing-savvy than Grab.
6 months ago
Yoolim Lee, Bloomberg
A further investment into artificial intelligence and localized languages — underserved in Southeast Asia — will give Grab a huge edge over its archrival. So watch out, Gojek.
6 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
After Indonesia, Grab’s next biggest battleground is Vietnam. No surprise there, it's a rapidly growing economy with all the ingredients for a ridehailing explosion. Naturally Grab is not alone — rivals are aplenty.
6 months ago
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.
8 months 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.
8 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?
8 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.
10 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.
10 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.
10 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.
10 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.
12 months ago
