Asia news roundup: Uber turns rare profit after Grab deal, while GrabFood replaces UberEats

Photo credit: Franklin Heijnen

Grab is replacing UberEats with its own service, while Carousell is definitely getting more than just money from one of its newest investors.

Delivery and logistics

GrabFood launches after lights out at UberEats (Malaysia/Singapore). The ride-hailing firm’s food-delivery service is now available in the two countries, following Grab’s acquistion of Uber’s Southeast Asia operations – including UberEats – earlier this year. Grab said that most of GrabFood’s delivery driver-partners have been migrated over from UberEats, while several Uber employees are on the GrabFood engineering team. The service is expected to launch in Vietnam and the Philippines before the end of June. (Tech in Asia)

A GrabFood driver collects a delivery. / Photo credit: Grab

Meituan-Dianping opens offline store (China). Ella Supermarket, the fresh groceries delivery brand of Meituan, has opened its first official brick-and-mortar shop. Located in Beijing, Ella offers fresh groceries, dining, ecommerce, and quick delivery “to serve fast-paced city lives,” according to the on-demand services company. Rival Alibaba offers a similar concept in Hema, a physical store that offers 30-minute delivery to customers within a 3 km radius. (TechNode)

Transportation

Ola to become Ola Group (India). The ride-hailing firm will reorganize into a group company structure in an effort to boost its valuation and improve management of its different business areas. Ola will set up a holding company that will own its core ride-hailing business, the Foodpanda food-delivery unit it acquired last year, its new electric vehicles organization, and the companies it is establishing abroad as it expands into overseas markets. These businesses are expected to have their own heads who will run them independently. (Livemint)

Uber reports US$2.5 billion first-quarter profit following Grab deal (Southeast Asia). The US ride-hailing company notched up US$2.5 billion profit on revenue of US$2.6 billion during the first three months of 2018. The profit is mostly accounted for by US$2.9 billion in savings, attributable to Uber’s sale of its Southeast Asian and Russian ride-hailing businesses to Grab and Yandex, respectively. Prior to the Grab merger, analysts had regularly asserted that Uber would have to shed loss-making units in emerging markets in order to turn a profit and lay the groundwork for an IPO in the future. (Recode)

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi / Photo credit: Uber

Meanwhile, the US firm appointed India lead Amit Jain to head up its rump Asia-Pacific operation. Previously in charge of Uber’s businesses in South Asia, Jain will now be the company’s general manager responsible for that region in addition to Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan. (Livemint)

Ecommerce

Traveloka launches car rental, other features (Indonesia). The online travel and hospitality unicorn is now offering car rental through its platform, in partnership with over 100 rental providers. The service – which is initially available in 11 of Indonesia’s major cities – gives customers several options, such as short-term 12-hour rental, driver hire, and an all-inclusive package that covers gasoline, parking, road tolls, and the driver’s meals and accommodation. Traveloka recently unveiled other new features like bus ticketing, restaurant booking, and micro-lending through its PayLater service. (e27)

Jollychic enters the unicorn club (China). The Hangzhou-based ecommerce startup has raised hundreds of millions of US dollars in a series C round that values it at US$1 billion. Sequoia Capital led the round, with Legend Capital also participating. Jollychic says it has over 35 million registered users and claims its gross merchandise volume has tripled in size for five consecutive years. (China Money Network)

Fintech

Carousell may get DBS help to build payments engine (Singapore). The online classifieds startup is rumored to be working with the bank to build and implement CarouPay, the digital payments app announced earlier this month. DBS was named as a new investor in Carousell when the startup revealed its US$85 million series C fundraise back in early May. (The Business Times)

Social media

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies