Shopee launches taxi service in Indonesia

Shopee, the ecommerce arm of Sea Group, has launched a taxi-ordering service in Indonesia after signing a partnership with local taxi operator Blue Bird.

As with other ride-hailing services such as Gojek and Grab, customers can pay for the taxi service with various non-cash payment methods inside Shopee’s app, including the marketplace’s e-wallet ShopeePay.

Photo credit: Shopee

Before this partnership, Shopee and Blue Bird had worked together on several fronts: The taxi firm allows its users to use ShopeePay to conduct transactions in its MyBluebird app. Also, Shopee’s users could use Blue Bird’s logistics service as one of the delivery methods on the app.

The new taxi service is included in Shopee’s transportation and accomodation category, alongside existing ticketing services for hotels, planes, trains, and buses.

While Blue Bird was founded in 2001, its history goes back to 1972, when it began providing taxi service with a fleet of only 25 vehicles. It currently is a publicly listed transportation firm present in 18 cities across Indonesia. Aside from its taxi service, the company also has car and bus rental businesses.

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In 2020, the taxi company invested in Gojek, which had just merged with Tokopedia – Shopee’s archrival in Indonesia. At the same time, Gojek also poured US$30 million into Blue Bird to acquire a minority stake in the business.