Grab enters Cambodia, opening a new front in its battle with Uber

Grab country head for Cambodia, Yee Wee Tang (L); Grab co-founder Tan Hooi Ling (CL), Cambodian transport minister Sun Chanthol (CR); and transport secretary of state Tauch Chankasol (R) at today’s launch. Photo credit: Grab

Grab has made another advance in Southeast Asia with the official launch of its services in Phnom Penh, as the rivalry between the region’s ride-hailing players heats up.

People needing a ride in the Cambodian capital will now be able to use JustGrab, the company’s fixed fare on-demand service. Beginning today, the Grab app is available to download for Android and iOS devices in the country.

Grab has also partnered with Cambodian digital financial service provider Wing Money to give its drivers in the kingdom  – many of whom will be “unbanked” – an account where their earnings can be deposited. This looks similar to Grab’s collaboration with Wave Money in Myanmar, which allows drivers to cash out their earnings and passengers to pay for rides using a mobile wallet.

GrabPay is available in Cambodia, allowing customers there to pay for their rides using their credit or debit card.

Rising competition

The battle between Southeast Asia’s three main ride-hailing companies is intensifying, with Google and Temasek last week valuing the industry at US$5.1 billion and expecting it to quadruple within the next eight years.

Uber – which launched in Cambodia in September – has lagged behind homegrown Southeast Asian competitors Grab and Go-Jek. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he didn’t expect its business in the region to turn a profit anytime soon.

Nevertheless, Uber has sought to enhance its local footprint lately, most notably by signing a US$474 million joint venture with Singaporean cab firm ComfortDelGro earlier this month. The deal will see ComfortDelGro take a 51 percent stake in Uber’s local car-leasing entity and its drivers onboarded onto the US company’s app.

Indonesia’s Go-Jek has made a series of acquisitions to support its diversification strategy, as it moves deeper into new service offerings in finance and ecommerce. Last week, it confirmed buyouts of three fintech firms – acquistions that come months after it purchased events ticketing startup Loket in August.

Go-Jek CTO Ajey Gore recently said that the company would launch in the Philippines early next year, marking its first expansion outside its home market. Other Southeast Asian countries are slated to follow later in 2018.

Yee Wee Tang (L), Grab’s country head for Cambodia , demonstrates the Grab app to Cambodian transport minister Sun Chanthol (R). Grab co-founder Tan Hooi Ling is behind them. Photo credit: Grab

Grab is already dominant in most of those markets, with Cambodia the eighth jurisdiction it has launched in.

Like Go-Jek, it has set its sights beyond ride-hailing with its GrabPay digital payments business. It has similarly turned to M&A activity to push this, acquiring online-to-offline sales platform Kudo earlier this year.

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