Bangkok, 8th May 2018 – Grab today unveils its smart city vision to empower a future of seamless mobility, on-demand food delivery, logistics, cashless payments and financial services for the people of Southeast Asia – all within one mobile app. Soon, from the moment they wake up, consumers can book a GrabCar to get to work, order their breakfast and eat at the comfort of their office with GrabFood, zip to a meeting with a GrabBike (Win) and deliver gifts to their loved ones through GrabBike (Delivery) – all enabled by one mobile wallet, GrabPay.

Building an everyday app for the future of smart cities

When Grab crossed the milestone of 1 billion rides across Southeast Asia in October last year, Grab surveyed consumers in the region to find out what people in Southeast Asia envision Grab to be like in ten years’ time – majority of the 500 consumers who responded wished for a one-stop, everyday, lifestyle app that complements their daily lives.

Grab also helps Southeast Asians see into this future of a smart city that Grab is bringing closer to them by announcing its interconnected ecosystem of consumer services, which will help make the everyday lives of people easier through the use of technology.

As Grab’s service offerings expand, more and more consumers, drivers, delivery couriers and merchants will get to benefit in many ways:

• Transport: Beyond just ride-hailing, Grab’s larger mobility vision is to enable a multi-modal future that serve people’s first- and last-mile needs more seamlessly. In the near future, consumers will be able to mix and match different transport options based on their travel preferences and budget. With better integration of public and private transportation options in one platform, consumers can choose to ride across and pay for multiple modes of transport seamlessly in one single journey. For instance, they can take a GrabBike (Win) to the BTS station, continue their journey on public transit, and finally take a JustGrab to their final destination – all through one Grab app.
• Payments: By expanding the use of GrabPay as a mobile wallet beyond transport, both consumers and merchants have a more seamless and secure way of transacting. Consumers can enjoy the benefits of a cashless society such as greater convenience and more seamless retail experience, while traditional, cash-based businesses are able to increase productivity and save business costs by going cashless. With a large transport and food user base, GrabPay and GrabRewards will also become real revenue drivers for micro-entrepreneurs and small, medium-sized businesses, giving them access to new customers in an affordable way.
• Financial services: Grab’s fintech offerings create new economic opportunities for millions of unbanked and underbanked consumers, drivers and small businesses across Southeast Asia. Over 6 million micro-entrepreneurs across the region have been enabled by Grab’s platform to date, and Grab targets to enable 100 million micro-entrepreneurs by 2020. Grab driver partners will also get to enjoy innovative in-app insurance solutions to protect their vehicles, livelihoods and families, for example, access to loss of income insurance, personal accident policies and motor insurance.
• Lifestyle: With on-demand transport, food and delivery all in one app, enabled by one mobile wallet, consumers will have their most important everyday needs met. The opportunity and flexibility to drive, deliver or offer consumer services through the Grab platform and to earn more income or business revenue at their own time and pace is also open to everyone who want to leverage the opportunities of a digital economy.

“We are in a position to power this future of smart cities for consumers, because of the interconnectedness of each of our service and how they help each other grow. Transport allows us to expand our GrabFood and Grab Financial services. Our GrabPay mobile wallet will be used for both transport and food, two of the most relevant use cases in Southeast Asia. By building a technology platform that serves the most important everyday lifestyle needs of consumers, we are benefitting an entire ecosystem of connected users who are not only passengers and drivers, but also increasingly agents, merchants and delivery partners. We can help everyone, particularly micro-entrepreneurs, grow their businesses and serve consumers better with how each of our service is interlinked,” Mr. Tarin Thaniyavarn, Country Head of Grab Thailand said.

GrabFood to expand to include more merchant partners

GrabFood was beta launched in Bangkok since last year. With no minimum order required, consumers have enjoyed the convenience of having their favourite food delivered fast, right to their doorsteps. Furthermore, they get to pay the same price for food in their Grab app as they would if they were to visit the restaurant in person. Grab driver partners have also enjoyed additional income opportunities from delivering food orders on top of picking up passengers. The GrabFood service has also helped create new job opportunities for delivery partners.

Close to 4,000 small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs have since set up their own online storefront on GrabFood to serve an increasingly online and mobile population, leveraging the fleet of delivery partners. User research with these merchant partners revealed that they have reaped the benefits of going online to reach more customers and enjoyed a significant increase in orders through GrabFood, resulting in higher revenue. Daily orders in Thailand have grown by more than 440% during the first quarter of this year. Merchant partners are now seeing incremental business revenue by tapping on the large user base of Grab and gaining access to GrabFood’s promotional schemes and marketing channels, such as featuring their restaurants upfront within the app as top recommendations to consumers.

Based on Grab’s user research, majority of Thai consumers have an innate love for good food, and will choose a food delivery platform that offers the most dependable service providing the widest range of food offerings with best value-for-money and fastest speed of delivery. GrabFood will continue to serve these needs of consumers, while at the same time, enable better income and revenue opportunities for delivery and merchant partners by constantly innovating and adding new product features.

• When making a GrabFood order, the app will automatically detect consumers’ location to make more personalised recommendations of restaurants nearby.
• Consumers can track real-time location of the delivery partner within the app.
• Consumers can use GrabChat to communicate with delivery partners on any food preferences they might have, for example, non-spicy or leave a note for delivery partners upon checkout. In the near future, Grab will bring about a more seamless user experience connecting consumers, merchants and delivery partners, so as to enable all food orders to be processed more quickly and efficiently.
• Consumers will pay by cash on delivery, and there is no minimum order value to fulfill so they can order all kinds of food, from large restaurant chains to small mom-and-pop stalls. We are also working on enabling GrabPay cashless option for more seamless payment directly to merchant partners, so that consumers can earn GrabRewards points for every order.
• Soon, with a dedicated merchant partner app, merchants can update information on opening hours and availability of dishes within the app, for example, if they intend to close shop earlier on a particular day or if they have run out of a particular dish. Some merchant partners in Bangkok are already testing this, and Grab will scale to more merchant partners. Consumers will have visibility of latest updates from merchant partners before they make their order.

“GrabFood is the next major step in our move to serve the daily essential needs of consumers. Food delivery is a natural extension of our transport offerings. Each day, millions of people in Southeast Asia rely on ride-hailing services to bring them from place to place, as well as food delivery services to save time from travelling around in congested cities to satisfy their cravings. With our acquisition of UberEats operations and the expansion of GrabFood across the region, we are working with local merchant and delivery partners to deliver the best of Thailand’s kitchens to the doorsteps of millions,” Mr. Thaniyavarn added.

Grab is scaling food delivery services citywide in Bangkok and expanding the range of cuisines offered on its GrabFood platform by onboarding more merchant partners.