UPDATE: According to Gojek, they are not planning to enter Malaysia and they were just shooting a video for an upcoming campaign to be released later this year.
When we think of ride-hailing, we immediately think of Grab. They have the biggest market share in Malaysia, with over 72% of the local market as of 2020. There are ride-hailing companies here such as InDriver, AirAsia Ride, MyCar and others, but none are as big as Grab.
However, an Indonesian company, Gojek, which within its own super app ecosystem, offers ride-hailing via both vehicles and motorbikes along with a number of other services, could be joining the local scene soon as they were spotted by Vocket recently in Kuala Lumpur.
Although Gojek has not made any announcements, this could be an indication that it is expanding its GoCar e-hailing service to the Malaysian market.
The Indonesian company, which is now a part of GoTo following a merger between Gojek and online retailer Tokopedia, earlier declared intentions to introduce its motorbike ride-hailing service to Malaysia in 2020. This was when the government had greenlighted test runs to legalise bike-hailing along with local business Dego, which has now turned to predominantly conducting delivery services.
Gojek’s objective, however, was not realised, and the company has not yet established a footprint in Malaysia. This was most likely brought on in part by the pandemic and the government’s backtracking, which resulted in the ban on bike-hailing being reinstated owing to safety concerns.
More competition is always a good thing. Let’s see what Gojek brings to the table.
