Indonesian app-based passenger transportation company GoJek has confirmed that it would expand its operations to 4 Southeast Asian countries, namely Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. GoJek Indonesia explained that the corporate’s brand for the Vietnamese market will probably be modified to “GoViet”, while Thailand will adopt the name “Get”.
“As for the other two countries; Singapore and the Philippines have not yet announced the name of the service. We will organize a soft launch for both countries,” Gojek Indonesia Vice President Michael Say explained last week.
Go-jek is finally entering a market that has long been dominated by Grab, the Singapore-based ride-hailing company. How does Grab react to this move?
Grab co-founder Anthony Tan welcomes Indonesian rival Go-Jek’s expansion into other Southeast Asian countries, saying competition will improve the performance of each Grab and Go-Jek.
“Grab was born in competition, we accept competition because we consider iron sharpens iron,” Tan said on the DBS Asian Insights conference in Singapore on Friday, as quoted by the Jakarta Post.
Tan added that when Grab was only competing with Uber in Southeast Asia, it was forced to step up and focus more on improving its services to customers.
“Competition forces you to be more modern. Customers won’t leave you due to your competition. They will leave you since you don’t love them anymore,” Tan said.
