Indonesia’s Go-Jek Competes With Uber and Grab, Looks To Expand in the Philippines
Motorcycle taxis are shaking up the automotive-hailing business, starting from Turkey’s Scotty and now Indonesia’s new start-up, Go-Jek, that has gained the financial support of a number of American investors.
Indonesia’s first ever billion-dollar s tart-up company.
Go-Jek derived from the Indonesian word ‘ojek’, a local motorcycle taxi, and has been arouond for 18 years now, although the mobile application itself is only three years old. First as a two-wheeler transportation company, Go-Jek had grown to become “a leading on-demand mobile platform” that provides a variety of services from transportation to payment and even food delivery and now operates in 50 cities such as tourism hotspots Bali, Batam, and Surabaya.
There are several car-hailing rides now – Uber and Lyft in the U.S. and Grab in Singapore are only a few that compete to be the best local ‘taxi’. With 400,000 drivers, Go-Jek’s Go-Ride is being considered as a serious rival to all the other automotive-hailing companies.
It works just like Grab or Uber. First, you have to select ‘Go-Ride’, and then select your pick-up location by moving the pin on the map. After that, you can select your payment method either with cash or using Go-Pay before clicking on ‘Order’ to find a driver. Once a driver has been selected, you can track their current location and contact them before, of course, rating them after the ride.
33-year-old Founder and Chief Executive of Go-Jek, Nadiem Makarim, said that although they have “huge respect for Uber as a technology company” they have out-innovated them as they “just move that much faster”.
Nakarim also said that it was time to bring the competition to their competitor’s doorsteps. The only country reported so far to be a part of their expansion is the Philippines which they are planning to set up operations in early this year.
“I think we've cracked the model of a platform that works,” Nakim told Bloomberg, “in an emerging economy where infrastructure isn't so great.
“There is a high likelihood that we would leverage our full stack. If we come in, we come in with the whole sweep of weapons.”
Aside from Go-Jek, there is also Go-Life that provides massages, cleaning services, and auto services.
Also a part of their main expansion this year is there digital payment services, much like AliPay and WePay. Other new services in the works are laundry pick-ups and delivery services.