Grab Accelerates Expansion of Deliveries Across Southeast Asia
(Bloomberg) -- Grab Holdings Inc., Southeast Asia's ride-hailing giant, is expanding delivery services from convenience stores and supermarkets across 50 cities in the region.
The Singapore-based startup said it has teamed up with 3,000 stores as it accelerates delivery of groceries, toilet paper, packaged snacks and beverages to cater to consumers mostly stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Grab provided the service in two countries before the Covid-19 outbreak, and it's now available in eight, adding the likes of Myanmar and Cambodia.
Ride-hailing businesses were hammered globally during the pandemic as people stopped going to work and eliminated unnecessary socialization. While Grab is private and doesn't disclose financial data, Uber Technologies Inc. said its global rides business is down 70% from last year. To combat the downturn, ride-hailing companies have pivoted to expand their drivers' delivery of food and other goods.
Demi Yu, regional head of GrabFood and GrabMart, said the company is boosting investment in deliveries this year to meet rising consumer demand.
In the U.S., DoorDash, the biggest food-delivery app in the country, started delivering goods from convenience stores in April. In Southeast Asia, e-commerce operators such as Qoo10 and Shopee have started delivering daily essentials, while Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Southeast Asian arm Lazada Group and Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Now are seeking to meet demand for fresh groceries.
How Alibaba's Lazada Turned Discarded Vegetables Into a Business
Grab is gearing up to expand into grocery services. In Singapore and Indonesia, consumers can now order fresh produce and premium meats from urban farmers and local suppliers. It's also working with traditional market operators in Indonesia and Malaysia.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
