Grab at its regional media event in Singapore today announced GrabPlatform – its open platform strategy to build Southeast Asia’s first everyday superapp. The platform is a suite of APIs that enables partners to access components of Grab’s technology like logistics and payments.
The launch of GrabPlatform comes off the back of a milestone year for Grab. The numbers speak for themselves. The company crossed two billion rides on 7 July 2018. Anthony Tan, group CEO & co-founder of Grab, said it took five year and four months to hit one billion rides but less than nine months to hit the next billion.
Grab is also the first Southeast Asian company to hit revenues of USD1 billion by the end of 2018.
With its core in transportation, Grab’s transport business is still rapidly growing, with Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) more than doubling in the past 12 months.
Its new business segments are also looking promising. GrabFood, which expanded from two to six countries in Q2, grew 9x in GMV over the last 12 months.
The vision of Grab is to be the “Everyday Superapp” for all. A new refreshed Grab app announced today, brings the vision closer to life. The new Grab experience is not only an all-in-one app for Grab’s services and products, but also a hub for personalised, relevant information to users.
The new homescreen gives users single tap access to GrabPay and easy navigation to all everyday services. More about the app here.
The refreshed Grab app hits Singapore and Indonesia today for iOS users, and will roll out to Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam at the end of Q3 2018.
Grab admits it cannot possibly build everything and thus, smart partnerships are crucial for the expansion of its business segments and growth in the region.
One of the key announcements at the regional event was the launch of a new service, riding on its new GrabPlatform. GrabFresh, an on-demand grocery delivery service, is a partnership with HappyFresh, Southeast Asia’s #1 grocery delivery provider. HappyFresh offers the widest selection of over 100,000 grocery products from over 50 large supermarket chains and specialty grocery chains. Grocery is the largest category of household expenditure in the region.
GrabFresh will be available as a beta service in Jakarta from this month, and will hit Thailand and Malaysia by end of 2018.
GrabPlatform is a two-way street. Firstly, it enables partners who are best-in-class in their sectors to ride on Grab’s distribution network and regional footprint. Grab has a network of 7.1 million drivers, delivery partners, agents and merchants, across 225 cities in eight countries. It gives partners access to Grab’s technology in transport, logistics, payments, user authentication, messaging, insights and mapping.
For Grab, partners enrich the platform by providing more services and offerings to users.
Grab says it is better placed than anyone else in the region to help other startups and businesses to grow and scale.
