Indonesian ride-hailing company Go-Jek on Wednesday (Sept. 12) launched its services in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, under the Go-Viet brand, as a part of its $500 million international expansion.
Go-Viet’s app-based on-demand service is led by a Vietnamese founding team, with Go-Jek providing technology, expertise and investment, offering services including transportation and logistics, food delivery and mobile payments.
Go-Viet has captured a 35 percent market share of ride-hailing services within the economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City, just six weeks after launching operations there on Aug. 1, said Go-Jek founder and CEO Nadiem Makarim.
“We are proud to have seen positive development in the Ho Chi Minh City market. This paves the way for us to expand our services to Hanoi,” Go-Viet co-founder and managing director Nguyen Vu Duc said at Wednesday’s launch.
The launch comes after the corporate announced in May that it could invest $500 million to expand into the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, following Uber’s deal to sell its Southeast Asian operations to larger regional player Grab.
On September 11, Grab announced a partnership with Vietnamese company MOCA Technology and Service (Moca) for a mobile payment service, as the corporate seeks to strengthen its position within the passenger transport market.
The opening was attended by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who’s in Hanoi on an official state visit and participating in a gathering of the World Economic Forum.
More and more Indonesian firms want to expand their operations in Vietnam, Widodo told reporters on Tuesday after meeting his counterpart Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi.
“We expect bilateral trade to reach $10 billion a year by 2020… and I hope President Tran Dai Quang will take action to remove trade barriers for Indonesian products, including cars,” he said.
Vietnam says the country exports rice, crude oil, cement and agricultural products to Indonesia, while importing fertilisers, petroleum products, machinery and textiles, meaning trade between the countries rose to $6.5 billion last 12 months from $5.6 billion in 2016.
Source: Reuters, Channel NewsAsia
