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In focus
- Grab takes delivery to the skies
- Are investors just hyped or genuinely curious?
- ChatGPT Go goes to Indonesia
Hello reader,
Ever since my wife got injured, we’ve come to rely on Grab’s services, particularly GrabFood.
We subscribed to the GrabUnlimited plan, so it’s been easy to switch to it from Foodpanda. (The good deals on GrabFood help, too.) While Grab features more stores around our area, we found that deliveries are a bit faster on Foodpanda.
But with Grab looking to use drones for deliveries, speed might not be an issue anymore.
In today’s featured story, my colleague Elyssa Lopez and I drew parallels between the drone logistics plan of Grab and Chinese food delivery major Meituan, as both companies operate in densely populated cities.
Both companies also don’t solely rely on drones, as humans still handle drop-offs at drone landing stations.
But Meituan has a huge head start. It started to explore drone-based logistics in 2017, and has completed 450,000 drone delivery orders in cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai as of June 2024.
In addition, Meituan has already launched the service in markets like Dubai and Hong Kong, which could indicate that the company is confident in the drones’ value for its business and customers.
While Grab is still piloting its drone delivery service, I will definitely try it out.
Another thing I’d want to test is ChatGPT Go, OpenAI’s cheaper alternative to its premium ChatGPT Plus plan. However, it’s only available in Indonesia for now.
But since ChatGPT Go was also launched in India a month ago, I might not have to wait too long for it to come to the Philippines.
Miguel Cordon, journalist
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