Grab follows Go-Jek into food delivery

Photo credit: Grab

Grab, the Malaysian on-demand transportation company, is diversifying its services with the introduction of GrabFood in Indonesia.

Judging from the announcement the company made on its website, GrabFood delivers to Jakarta’s central business district only, for now. The operating hours are also limited, starting from 11am to 2pm.

Grab claims it only partners with the best restaurants, and those around the areas it targets. The restaurants are mid to upscale, like Turkuaz with its Mediterranean cuisine and Italian restaurant Pepenero.

Users will be charged a delivery fee of US$1.52 – though in the introductory phase, a current promotion cuts the delivery cost to US$0.76. There’s no minimum order requirement.

Payments can be made in cash, but in the future, Grab says a cashless payment option will be added.

Go-Food, the food delivery service by local competitor Go-Jek, charges US$1.14 for non-partnering restaurants, and only US$0.38 for those it has partnership agreements with.

Arguably, Grab will have a lot of catching up to do if it wants to leave its mark in this sector. For Go-Jek, food delivery is part of its DNA. It was one of the three services – along with personal transportation and courier – introduced with the first release of the Go-Jek app in early 2015.

A Grab spokesperson told Tech in Asia GrabFood is only available in Jakarta and is still being “beta tested.”

Converted from Indonesian rupiah. Rate: US$1 = IDR 13,175.