Gojek working on way to launch food delivery service in Singapore

Ride-hailing company Gojek, which has grown into an app-for-everything in Indonesia, is working out how to offer food delivery service in Singapore.

The company, which started in Indonesia by offering rides on motorcycle taxis known as ojek in 2011, could also expand to Malaysia, it said at a media briefing yesterday.

Gojek launched its car ride-hailing service in Singapore last year as part of a US$500 million (S$680 million) regional expansion plan.

"In Singapore, we have continued to grow, but we only have one service, Go-Car. We have been seeing good growth. Within the first three months, we reached our first one million bookings," group president Andre Soelistyo told The Straits Times during the briefing for the launch of a new company logo.

This positive result was also seen earlier in Vietnam and Thailand, Mr Andre added.

Gojek started food delivery service in Indonesia in mid-2015, and has launched its Go-Food service in Vietnam and Thailand, where it also operates ride-hailing services.

It sees Singapore as a prospective market in food delivery service, but the biggest challenge is that the city-state does not have motorcycle taxis as public transport, unlike Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

"Our (strategy) is to use partner drivers of our existing ride-hailing service to also do food delivery service," Mr Andre said, adding that Gojek is doing evaluations to find the right solution so that it could replicate in Singapore its successes in Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. "Hopefully we will get an answer not too long from now."

Gojek claims to be the largest food delivery service firm in South-east Asia, even beating regional competitors in India, which has a population of more than four times that of Indonesia's 260 million.

It said it has more than two million partner drivers and 400,000 partner merchants across South-east Asia.

"When we first launched Go-Food in Indonesia, we became the biggest player in the food delivery service in the country within six hours," Gojek's founder and group chief executive Nadiem Makarim said.

He recalled that during the time of the launch, there were numerous food delivery services in Indonesia, but none catered to the small food outlets or street food stalls which actually had the highest demand for delivery service.

Gojek and its main rival, Singapore-based Grab, have been competing in South-east Asia's ride-hailing market, as the two billion-dollar companies look to expand following the exit of Uber from the region. Last year, Grab acquired Uber's business in the region.

Grab, founded by Malaysians Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling, already offers food delivery and mobile payments in Singapore.

In Indonesia, Gojek has expanded to more than 20 services, including house cleaning, massage and laundry. It is known for its affordable pricing that analysts say is possible because it pays for part of the costs out of its coffers.

Gojek is believed to be still facing a negative net operating cash flow, but it remains attractive to global investors, including Google, Visa and Tencent - among Gojek's shareholders - as the firm has high asset valuations and revenue growth.

It said yesterday that the number of transactions in all its services grew 12-fold in the past three years.

Mr Nadiem said Gojek could be expanding to Malaysia next, but he did not elaborate.

"Gojek is not a ride-hailing, food delivery service or payment company. We are a combination of (these services) and all other services that we offer. This is why we need a new logo that could represent our evolutions."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 23, 2019, with the headline Gojek working on way to launch food delivery service in Singapore. Subscribe