Gojek Singapore burned $141m in first full year of operations

Velox Digital Singapore Pte. Ltd., the Singapore entity of Indonesian ride-hailing unicorn Gojek, recorded a US$141 million loss in 2019, its first full year of operations.

The net loss amounts to a small fraction of the US$5.4 billion or so it has raised from investors.

The entity, which represents Gojek’s ride-hailing business in the city-state, did not disclose topline revenue in its 2019 financial statements. However, it stated that the amount of service fees earned was lower than the incentives paid out to drivers.

Its net revenue, adding up to negative US$99.8 million, was recorded as an expense under “rebates to service providers.”

Advertising costs, which represents incentives provided to passengers, is the next biggest item at US$17.9 million.

Velox Digital Singapore Pte. Ltd. is one of at least two legal entities that Gojek holds in Singapore. The other one, Gojek Singapore Pte. Ltd., provides data science and software development services to its Indonesian parent firm and other associated companies.

Tech in Asia has reached out to Gojek for comment.

Gojek entered Singapore in 2018 as part of its regional expansion, which also includes its foray into Thailand and Vietnam. Within a year of its launch in the city-state, the company claimed to have hit 30 million trips.

According to Singapore’s Land Transport Authority, the average number of daily trips for private-hire cars was 347,000 in 2018 and 419,000 in 2019. That would put Gojek’s market share in Singapore at approximately 20%.

The above figures do not include taxi rides, though, as Gojek only started offering taxi bookings in November 2019 through a partnership with Singaporean company Trans Cab.

Data from advisory firm ABI Research shows, however, that Gojek’s market share in Singapore’s ride-hailing sector amounted to only 4.2% in 2019. That figure, which is based on the number of trips completed by various ride-hailing players, also dipped in the first half of 2020.

Archrival Grab, on the other hand, holds over 90% of market share in both periods, according to the study. Further, the company previously disclosed that it had reached “segment breakeven” for its ride-hailing business in all markets that it operates in.