Once Southeast Asia's Most Valuable Startup, Grab Falls $13 Billion Behind GoTo

[Indos]

Once Southeast Asia's Most Valuable Startup, Grab Falls $13 Billion Behind GoTo​

Olivia Poh, Bloomberg News

Aug 24, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore’s Grab Holdings Ltd., once Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup, is faltering behind GoTo Group in the public markets as it fights to gain ground on its Indonesian ride-hailing rival’s home turf.

The unprofitable companies are both struggling to convince investors of their moneymaking potential after staging their stock-market debuts in recent months. Yet GoTo has fallen less than its competitor and its market value of about $26 billion is now twice that of its Singaporean peer. The companies are each set to report quarterly earnings in the coming days.

Grab and GoTo have been locked in an expensive battle for dominance over the past several years. Grab still counts the city-state of Singapore as its largest market even as it tries to expand in countries including Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy. GoTo is enjoying a leadership position in its home nation of more than 270 million people whose mobile-savvy consumers are shopping on its online-retail platform Tokopedia and ordering rides and food via its Gojek’s app.

The growth potential of Indonesia has helped GoTo outperform Grab, which became a publicly traded company through a merger with Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter Growth Corp. in December. GoTo has lost about 3% since its initial public offering in Jakarta in April, while Grab is down more than 60% since combining with the US blank-check company.

“GoTo’s advantage as a homegrown Indonesian brand and its synergy with Tokopedia may let the country’s biggest tech firm defend food-delivery market share from Grab, the category’s leader in Southeast Asia, and improve profitability,” Nathan Naidu, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a July 20 report.

While Gojek has a strong grasp of the crucial Indonesia market, Grab has made inroads in food delivery. Grab had 49% of the Indonesian food delivery market last year, compared with GoTo’s 43%, according to Momentum Works.

Grab is scheduled to report second-quarter results before US markets open on Thursday, while GoTo is set to release results on Aug. 30.

(Updates with Indonesia food-delivery market shares in sixth paragraph)

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Once Southeast Asia's Most Valuable Startup, Grab Falls $13 Billion Behind GoTo - BNN Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore’s Grab Holdings Ltd., once Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup, is faltering behind GoTo Group in the public markets as it fights to gain ground on its Indonesian ride-hailing rival’s home turf.

www.bnnbloomberg.ca

 

[Indos]

Indonesia's Bukalapak, Standard Chartered launch digital banking service​

Indonesian e-commerce giant Bukalapak.com and Britain's Standard Chartered have launched a digital banking service in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, the companies said on Monday.

JAKARTA, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Indonesian e-commerce giant Bukalapak.com BUKA.JK and Britain's Standard Chartered STAN.L have launched a digital banking service in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, the companies said on Monday.

The service will be available inside Bukalapak's platform, which has more than 110 million users and also 20 million business owners, according to a joint statement.

The statement did not specify the amount of investment planned for the service, which is called BukaTabungan (Open savings).

Beside targeting Bukalapak's users, the service is also aimed at micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, many of which do not have access to formal financing yet, the statement said.

Shares of Bukalapak.com closed at 284 rupiah per share on Monday, or down more than 60% from the company's initial public offering (IPO) price at 850 rupiah per share.

The e-commerce company raised $1.5 billion from its IPO last year.

(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman Editing by Ed Davies)

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/indonesias-bukalapak-standard-chartered-launch-digital-banking-service

 

[AMG_12]

In Malaysia, Grab enjoyed monoply in ride hailing and food delivery for quite a few years and only recently we started seeing AirAsia, MyCar and a few others expanding their operations and breaking that monoply.

 

[Indos]

In Malaysia, Grab enjoyed monoply in ride hailing and food delivery for quite a few years and only recently we started seeing AirAsia, MyCar and a few others expanding their operations and breaking that monoply.

Thanks for the information bro, we will see what will happen for the rest of the year soon inshaAllah

 

[Indos]

Shopee joins start-up layoffs trend in RI, blames global economy​

Wike D. Herlinda (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta ● Mon, September 19, 2022



Shopee Indonesia has announced layoffs in Indonesia, following a wider trend that has been unsettling workers in the country’s tech sector over the past few months.

The subsidiary of Singapore’s Sea Ltd. said on Monday it had fired “a number of” employees in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that Shopee was preparing to fire 3 percent of its employees in the country as part of “a broader wave of regional job cuts intended to curb ballooning losses and win back investors.”


Shopee has also pulled back from major markets in Europe and Latin America, in addition to getting banned in India amid increasing tensions with Chinese firms.

The company vowed the latest decision would not affect its business operations or services for sellers, buyers and partners in Indonesia.

Shopee Indonesia head of public affairs Radnyal Nataprawria explained that the decision was the last option for the e-commerce firm after other adjustments made to its business policies.

“Global economic conditions require us to adapt more quickly and evaluate business priorities in order to be more efficient. This is a very difficult decision," he was quoted as saying in a statement released on Monday.


He underscored that the efficiency measure was in line with the company's global focus on achieving independence and sustainability, which he said were two important components in running a business amid the current global economic woes.

Radnyal also stressed that Shopee Indonesia would focus on sustainable business growth, adding that the company wanted “to strengthen and ensure our operations are stable in the current economic situation.”

He said Shopee would remain committed to supporting the affected workers.

“This process will be carried out based on government regulations. Affected employees will receive severance pay in accordance with statutory provisions with an additional one month of salary," he explained.

As of this year, Shopee has served both buyers and sellers, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and local entrepreneurs, in 514 cities and regencies in the archipelago. The company said it remained committed to programs for MSMEs carried out at nine Shopee MSME Campuses.

"Shopee's achievements so far cannot be separated from the hard work and commitment of the Shopee team. We thank you for the contribution of the entire Shopee team so far," Radnyal said, noting that “we will continue our mission to serve millions of [users] to enjoy the benefits of the digital economy through our platform.”

Shopee has been one of Sea’s major businesses, along with a gaming arm. The largest Southeast Asian tech giant ended 2021 with a total of around 67,000 employees.

The group has lost around US$170 billion in market value since an October high as questions remain about its profit prospects amid rising interest rates in the region as well as intensifying competition from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Shopee joins start-up layoffs trend in RI, blames global economy

Shopee Indonesia has announced layoffs in Indonesia, following a wider trend that has been unsettling workers in the country’s tech sector over the past few months.

www.thejakartapost.com