Motorcycle-hailing app GrabBike is fast encroaching on Go-Jek in terms of numbers of orders

GrabBike, which is GrabTaxi’s motorcycle-hailing app, entered Jakarta in late May. It now claims to have processed 500,000 orders.

Go-Jek is a very similar local service, and has been around for years. (Since 2011?) But only in January of this year did Go-Jek finally launch an app, and is massively expanding its network of drivers. Go-Jek announced it hit a million orders on July 6.

So while Go-Jek is still clearly in the lead, GrabBike is catching up – fast. Half the number of orders in under two months.

One qualm I have with these figures: they seem to be counting orders, not actual rides. Both companies have aggressively been promoting their services with ridiculously cheap flat rates. GrabBike currently offers rides anywhere in the city for Rp. 5,000 (US$0.37), while Go-Jek offers rides for Rp. 10,000 (US$0.75).

This will have led to a surge of orders, but many of those do not get accepted because of an apparent demand overload.

From a user perspective, using either of the services has actually been rather frustrating in the past.