Ho Chi Minh City, 9 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, pay for their favourite Pho with GrabPay for lunch, zip to a meeting with a GrabBike, deliver gifts to their loved ones through GrabExpress, order their dinner and eat at the comfort of their home with GrabFood.

Riding on the success of ride-hailing, Grab will make significant technology investments in its platform to bring an expanded range of online consumer services to Vietnam this year. Starting tomorrow, consumers in Vietnam will be able to order food from restaurants near them through the newly beta launched GrabFood within the app. With no minimum order required, consumers can satisfy their cravings and order from the wide selection of cuisines available, enjoying the convenience of having their favourite food delivered fast, right to their doorsteps.

Grab’s existing and new driver partners will enjoy additional income and job opportunities from delivering food orders on top of picking up passengers. Merchant partners now have their own online storefront to serve an increasingly online and mobile population by leveraging the fleet of driver partners. They no longer need to rely solely on physical visits by customers to their shops or stalls as their primary source of revenue. They will also get to enjoy incremental business revenue by tapping on the large user base of Grab and gaining access to GrabFood’s promotional schemes and marketing channels to grow their business, such as featuring their restaurants upfront within the app as top recommendations to consumers.

“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 driver partners to deliver the best of Vietnam’s kitchens to the doorsteps of millions,” Mr. Jerry Lim, Country Head of Grab Vietnam said.

Connecting merchant partners to mobile-first consumers

GrabFood was first launched in Jakarta in 2016 and subsequently beta-tested in Bangkok last year. User research with merchant partners in these cities revealed that they have reaped incremental benefits of going online to reach more customers and enjoyed a significant increase in orders through GrabFood, resulting in higher revenue. GrabFood has proven to be a real revenue driver for merchants in these cities, and Grab is bringing this experience to Vietnam to benefit hundreds of thousands of small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs, especially those with shops or stalls located in more remote and under-served areas with minimal human traffic.

Based on Grab’s user research, majority of Vietnamese consumers are excited to try new things, 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 meet 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 driver partner within the app.
• Consumers can use GrabChat to communicate with driver partners on any food preferences they might have, for example, non-spicy, or leave a note for driver partners upon checkout. In the near future, Grab will bring about a more seamless user experience connecting consumers, merchants and driver 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. Consumers will have visibility of latest updates from merchant partners before they make their order.  

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, as captured in this blog post.

To help Southeast Asians see into this future of a smart city that Grab is bringing closer to them, Grab releases a video today showcasing how Grab’s interconnected ecosystem of consumer services will help make 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 an on-demand shuttle bus, continue their journey on public transit, and finally take a GrabBike 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 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. Driver-partners can build credit histories with Grab to qualify for financial services like loans that they previously never had access to. They can also enjoy innovative in-app insurance solutions to protect their vehicles, livelihoods and families.
• 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 driver partners, 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. Jerry Lim added.