JAKARTA. Domestic online transportation business becomes more attractive for investors. Amid the tight competition between service providers, investors inject significant amount of funds in order to win the competition.
Recently, a group of investors led by Japanese SoftBank Group poured US$750 million of funds to Grab, an online transportation service provider. Previously, Grab’s competitor PT Gojek Indonesia has accepted US$550 million of investment.
Chief Executive Officer of Grab Anthony Tan ensured that most of the investment will be allocated to expand business in Indonesia. However, Anthony declined to specify the amount of funds will be allocated to Grab’s business in Indonesia.
Public Relations of Grab Indonesia Dewi Nuraini also declined to reveal the number of funds to be invested in Indonesia. However, she ensured that Grab will expand its business in Indonesia, on the grounds that online transportation business in Indonesia has a US$15 billion of market potential. “We will develop Grab Pay platform in South East Asia region, including in Indonesia”, Dewi said.
Aside of developing Grab Pay platform, Grab will expand online transportation business to other cities. Currently, Grab has provided online transportation service in Greater Jakarta area, as well as Bandung, Surabaya, and Bali.
As of 2016, Grab has employed 350,000 of driver partners, most of them are in Indonesia.
Amid the tight competition in domestic market, another online transportation service provider Uber Indonesia claimed that the business will be sustainable, on the grounds that the online transportation service can provide affordable price for consumers.
Executive Director of Indonesian Transportation Society Dedy Herlambang said that the sustainability of online transportation business mainly depends on three factors, namely hospitality, safety, and security. However, in the future online transportation business may face challenge from the operations of mass transportation. (Translator: Muhammad Farid)
