Grab is the leading ride-hailing player in Indonesia and Southeast Asia: new research

Grab has held nearly two-thirds of Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing market since 2018, advisory firm ABI Research says in a new report.

ABI explains that it collects data for all vehicular types – both two- and four-wheelers – directly from the companies competing in the market.

Illustration: Centaine Lim

“We collected data from numerous ride-hailing operators in several regions. We check each vendor’s data against the inputs provided from every other vendor, particularly their assumptions around total market size,” says James Hodgson, principal analyst at ABI, without specifying exactly which vendors gave their data.

“We further check these data against publicly available data such as company financials, investor reports, the population of the cities served by these operators, and what the likely adoption rate of ride-hailing service adoption is for these cities,” he explains.

In terms of the number of ride-hailing trips for the first half of 2019, Grab’s market share in Indonesia stands at 63.6% compared to 35.3% for its Indonesian-headquartered rival Gojek. The figures were roughly similar for 2018.

The report further claims that Grab has a 92% market share – in terms of the number of trips – in Singapore, 90% in Thailand, and 72.9% in Vietnam.

The numbers for Gojek in those markets are 4.6%, 4.5%, and 10.3%, respectively.

Gojek did not immediately respond to Tech in Asia’s questions. Grab declined to comment.

Stay tuned for our follow-up analysis on the state of ride-hailing in Southeast Asia.