Articles tagged “grab”

Closing islands for a rehab seems fashionable in Southeast Asia. It shouldn’t be. Authorities must first assess options carefully, and by no means should premature announcements be made. Just look at the Komodo Island example and the wrong messages Indonesia has sent about one of its most unique tourism assets.

After Indonesia, Grab’s next biggest battleground is Vietnam. No surprise there, it's a rapidly growing economy with all the ingredients for a ridehailing explosion. Naturally Grab is not alone — rivals are aplenty.

The vision of global, interconnected ridehailing is sweet, and Asian player Grab wants to lead the way. But there is good reason to be skeptical.

What if you could use your everyday ridehailing app anywhere in the world? No more cumbersome downloads of another app or losing loyalty points from your app. That’s what Grab wants to achieve with its investment in Splyt. Too good to be true?

Uber certainly isn't making a profit yet, which isn't the worst thing in the world, considering the mammoth market opportunity. Still, investors in its initial public offering should know it could take several years before that red ink turns black.

In the face of a fast-growing and innovative rival, Grab’s foray into travel, starting with hotels, could give it an edge over archrival Go-Jek, which does not do travel — yet.

Consumers in the West reach almost reflexively for the Google Maps app as the service becomes a nearly ubiquitous utility despite a dearth of messaging and payments. Whether it evolves into the next superapp may depend on whether users really want a do-everything app and the mood of regulators seeking to break up big tech.

Expedia is an opportunistic company, and mergers and acquisitions are part of its DNA. The company has been quiet on this front for the past three years. It is sort of due to make another big splash.

Grab will hire an additional 1,000 tech employees in 2019, after doubling the number of software engineers, data scientists, and analysts it added this year to 2,000. A look at its next R&D hiring plan gives a few hints on what it is working on.

Expedia has dealt with a ton of distractions in recent years as it acquired Wotif, Travelocity, Orbitz Worldwide, and HomeAway, for example. CEO Mark Okerstrom wants to focus on the basics instead, and doesn't want to take bold steps into dining reservations or food delivery for now. On the other hand, Expedia is a very acquisitive company so never say never.