The fight for domination in the ride-hailing market just got a little hotter. A partnership between Indonesia’s Go-Jek and DBS bank has been announced to provide payment services when its beta app launches, right before Go-Jek makes its debut in the country. A joint statement between the two companies made this known on November 12, Monday.
Meanwhile, Grab and the United Overseas Bank (UOB) also announced on November 12 that they inked a deal wherein users can tap a number on the payment solutions of UOB on the Grab app itself.
Go-Jek fired the first shot in the battle for market domination on October 29, when it opened a portal for drivers to pre-register on its platform. The company announced six months ago that S$671 million would be invested in its bid to expand into markets in South East Asia, namely Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines within 2018. Go-Jek was able to raise funds amounting to S $2.074 billion from investors such as China’s Tencent and Meituan Dianping, as well as Google, Temasek and others.
Read related: Singapore’s Grab is losing drivers to Indonesia’s Go-Jek
According to Andre Soelistyo, the president of Go-Jek, the company is excited for the launch of the beta ride-hailing app. “We know that people are desperate for more choice in the sector, and we believe we can satisfy this demand. The response from the driver community since we opened pre-registration has been overwhelming, and we are confident that by working with DBS, we will see the same level of excitement from consumers too.”
Because of the collaboration, clients of DBS will have privileges in payment services, not only in Singapore but throughout South East Asia. The head of consumer banking and wealth management for the bank, Tan Su Shan, says that DBS’ goal is to facilitate easy payments for all its clients.
In the same way, Grab users who pay for services with their UOB cards will also enjoy special perks. They can also top up their GrabPay wallets straight from UOB bank accounts.
Grab and UOB are working together for putting the bank’s features into the mobile app of the ride-hailing service, in order for consumers to “quickly and conveniently” use the banking services.
The joint statement from Grab and UOB reads, “Through these initiatives, consumers will be able to enjoy a fully digital and seamless banking and payments experience, from the moment they apply to open an account through to managing their everyday lifestyle needs when using the app.”
UOB is now the preferred banking partner of Grab in the country and has become a strategic credit card partner in several other countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
The two firms are also looking into starting co-branded credit cards in the 10 member nations of the ASEAN.
Anthony Tan, Grab’s CEO and co-founder has said that partnering with UOB allows clients “more convenient payments services regionally, and help more people move from cash to cashless”.