UberTaxi launches in Singapore to do battle against GrabTaxi, Easy Taxi

You can now book a taxi in Singapore using the Uber app. The service previously only allowed users in the country to book private vehicles.

While Uber is late to the taxi app arena in Singapore, it does have a couple of advantages. It offers a silky smooth user interface, and it doesn’t need users to exchange money with the driver at all. All payments happen in the background.

GrabTaxi hasn’t released any payments system yet. Meanwhile, Easy Taxi just rolled out theirs.

Uber does suffer from one problem though. Getting a vehicle is relatively harder compared to GrabTaxi, which is ubiquitous with about 16,000 drivers in Singapore on the platform. This will be a problem if you’re booking a cab from a residential area.

In my experience, GrabTaxi is probably the best for successful bookings, and that’s probably the most important thing. Your snazzy interface comes to naught if supply is a problem.

User experience aside, UberTaxi’s entry into Singapore (it entered Hong Kong earlier this year) ups the stakes in the taxi app wars.

London-headquartered Hailo is reportedly trying to make an entry as well, although at this point it does look like a step too late. Easy Taxi recently launched an enterprise product for companies to offer their staff taxi bookings as part of their benefits program, and it even allowed users to book a cab via WeChat.

UberTaxi’s launch in Singapore isn’t surprising considering that the country has been friendly towards potentially disruptive technologies.

Uber doesn’t have such luck in other countries though, running into trouble in Malaysia, India, and Indonesia.

See more: 5 challenges Uber will face as it expands in Asia