You have just about more than a week to get used to living in Singapore without Uber.
The ride-hailing service announced to their users via email that they would be extending their services through to May 7, “as required by the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore”, and urged them to sign up with Grab. But there has been talk about two other services that may be available soon.
While there’s still no confirmation that Indonesian ride-hailing app Go-Jek will be entering our market anytime soon, there has been talk about the company expanding into four other countries in the region, including Singapore. It’s easy to speculate, seeing how they opened a Singapore office in our CBD that’s focused on data science.
And more recently, according to a report by a leading tech website, they’ve been in talks with Singapore’s huge taxi conglomerate, ComfortDelGro, whom Uber struck a deal with just months before the Uber-Grab deal. Both companies have declined to comment, but if this goes through, Go-Jek wouldn’t have to start from nothing when they enter our market.
It makes complete sense for both companies to come to an agreement—if the rumors are true, of course—because ComfortDelGro can definitely bank on Go-Jek’s ride-hailing technology that has seen major success in their home country; and not to mention that they’ve won the backing of Google, Tencent, JD.com, Allianz and Meituan Dianping.
As for the local p2p carpooling start-up Ryde, they’ve announced that they’re well on their way to launch their new private-hire car service called RydeX by the end of this month. It’s been reported that they’ve seen an increase in usage and user downloads of their app ever since the RydeX announcement three weeks ago.
Nobody likes a monopoly—at least its end users a.k.a. all of us. Having more choice is always a win for everybody. But for now, all we can do is wait.
