Indonesian ride-hailing company Go-Jek, one of the nation's unicorns, confirmed its plans to expand into other countries in the Southeast Asian region. Over the next couple of months the company will invest USD $500 million to start delivering its ride-hailing services in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines. Earlier, Go-Jek had already expressed its intention to expand beyond the borders of Indonesia. This time, however, it has given more details about its plans.

Read more ›

The local and thriving ride-hailing market in Southeast Asia is dominated by local startups. Foreign counterparts fail to gain significant market share. The latest proof is Uber Technologies Inc.'s decision to sell its operations and assets in the Southeast Asian region to Singapore-based technology company (but originally founded in Malaysia) Grab. Through this consolidation-move, Uber will obtain a 27.5 percent stake in the combined entity, while Uber's chief executive officer will join the board of Grab.

Read more ›

Nadiem Makarim, Chief Executive Officer of Indonesian ride-hailing and logistics services provider Go-Jek, expects the company to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) within the next couple of years. Go-Jek, Indonesia's first billion-US dollar tech startup, offers various services to the Indonesian people, including transportation, delivery, lifestyle and payment services.

Read more ›

Use of digital cash in transactions of ride-hailing and logistics services providers Grab and Go-Jek is becoming increasingly important. The management of Grab stated that cashless transactions (using smartphones tied to mobile payment systems) are now contributing more than half of the total value of transactions of Grab. Since the introduction of GrabPay, the value of cashless transactions recorded double-digit growth every month.

Read more ›

Today, Indonesian taxi and public transportation drivers staged another demonstration in Jakarta. They protest against the presence of app-based mobile applications such as Uber Taxi, GrabCar and Go-Jek that all recently started offering transportation services in the bigger cities of Indonesia and have become increasingly popular, at the expense of the financial performance of established transportation services such as taxis, public buses, bajaj (three-wheeled scooters) and ojek (motor taxi). The demonstration turned violent on Tuesday morning.

Read more ›

On Saturday, 01 April, 2017, the new regulations for ride-hailing apps in Indonesia came into effect, designed to protect consumers of these apps and support traditional transportation services such as taxi operators, minivans, buses and motorcycle taxis. The regulations include maximum and minimum tariffs for four-wheeled-vehicle rides that are booked through the online app, as well as a limit on the number of vehicles available. However, authorities will give time to these ride-hailing apps to adjust to the new regulations due to the "magnitude of the technical rules".

Read more ›

Coffee chain operator Starbucks, which is active in Indonesia via a partnership between Starbucks Coffee International and local Indonesian retail company Mitra Adiperkasa, launched its Starbucks Mobile App in Indonesia on Friday (18/11). Customers can now pay through this mobile app in more than 260 Starbucks stores across Southeast Asia's largest economy. A free Earl Grey Jelly Frappuccino is available to those who use the mobile app through November 2016.

Read more ›

Foreigners who live in Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta are well aware of the horrible traffic situation. The lack of sufficient infrastructure development in combination with high car sales in recent years as well as the ever-growing population of Jakarta have resulted in complete standstills in many parts of the city, particularly on weekdays. To cover a relatively small distance in a car or taxi it can take hours, a loss of valuable time. Fortunately, there is a solution to these traffic jams.

Read more ›

Grab, the Malaysia-founded online application used for transportation services, has experienced remarkable growth in Indonesia during the first half of 2016. GrabCar and GrabBike have grown some 250 percent despite a 50 percent cut in its fare subsidy in this period. More than 25 percent of active Grab users in Indonesia use Grab services more than once a month. This success is due to the government's decision to legalize mobile application-based transportation services (under specific conditions) and the re-branding of Grab (formerly it was known as GrabTaxi).

Read more ›

Indonesian drivers of taxis, buses and bajaj (three-wheeled scooters) gathered on Monday (14/03) on several locations - in front of the State Palace, City Hall, and the Ministry of Communication and Information - in Central Jakarta to demonstrate against the presence of online transportation applications such as Uber Taxi, GrabCar and Go-Jek. Protestors claim that these mobile apps are operating illegally in the country (as these services are not regulated by law) and cause a decline in income for long-time established transportation services, including taxi services, bus services and the more traditional transportation services such as bajaj and ojek (motor taxi).

Read more ›

Indosat, one of Indonesia's largest telecommunication networks and services provider, has partnered with Novosol, a Singapore headquartered mobile media and advertising company. Indosat will offer Novosol's MoFutbol multimedia mobile magazine to its fifty million plus subscribers at no charge. MoFutbol is a 24x7 magazine videos, photo-stories and real time scrollers. MoFutbol is the first multimedia mobile football service in the Indonesian language. The Mandarin and Malay editions will follow soon.

Read more ›