Hong Kong’s Easyvan rebrands as Lalamove just in time for launch in Bangkok

A fierce competition among two Hong Kong startups is slowly spreading across Southeast Asia. Easyvan, one of two fragrant harbour startups that connects urban logistics providers with clients that need stuff moved, has launched in Bangkok under the name Lalamove.

According to the company, Lalamove will work almost exactly like Easyvan in Hong Kong and Singapore, the two markets it’s currently live in. Anyone who needs something shipped from one part of town to another – whether that’s a couple moving a coffee table, or a food supplier shipping 500 bags of coffee beans – can open up the Lalamove mobile app, specify the type of delivery, and request a driver to do the job. Freelance drivers, meanwhile, receive lists of requests from their mobile phones and can take jobs as they please. It’s the Uber model of urban transportation, but for moving things, not people.

Board Advisor Blake Larson, who joined the company late last summer after departing from Rocket Internet’s Easy Taxi, tells Tech in Asia that Easyvan will rebrand in markets outside of Hong Kong and Singapore (where it will be known as “Lalamove powered by Easyvan”) because it will offer services from vehicles that (spoiler alert) aren’t vans.

“Van doesn’t really represent what we’re doing anymore,” says Larson. “We put motorcycles on our platform right now in Hong Kong that will launch next month, and they’re already on the platform in Singapore. The name Lalamove doesn’t have any particular meaning in and of itself, but it feels bright and airy, and all-encompassing.”

See: Easyvan and Gogovan take ‘Uber for logistics’ to Asia

Lalamove’s country manager in Thailand, Santit Jirawongkraisorn (who joined Lalamove after working for Uber in Thailand), says that the Thai market will pose some specific challenges that differ from those faced in Hong Kong and Singapore. For one thing, paper document delivery is more common in Thailand than the other two markets, so the team anticipates lots of orders demanding stacks of papers get sent from one place to another. In addition, sifting through a range of different vehicle types in Bangkok in order maintain high standards has been time consuming, according to Jirangkraisorn.

“If you look at the number of motorcycles in Bangkok alone there are three million motorcycles, and over a million pickup trucks. So we have a big supply market, but we need to weed out the trucks and drivers that are suitable to drive for us. Some pickups have high roofs, some have low roofs, some have refrigeration, some don’t. Right now, the kind of pickup truck we’re looking at can be used for many purposes.”

Lalamove’s competitor Gogovan hasn’t yet launched in Thailand. But it has a team on the ground in Taiwan, where it’s recruiting drivers and testing its technology, as evidenced by recent updates on its Facebook page. Beyond Hong Kong and Singapore, it also looks set to enter mainland China quickly, following its US$10 million funding round from Renren. Lalamove hasn’t publicly disclosed funding beyond seed cash from its founders. Both companies have told Tech in Asia on several occasions they plan on expanding rapidly throughout Asia.

Editing by David Corbin, image by Jason Jones