Grab aims to be Malaysians’ everyday app
By Digital News Asia May 22, 2018
- Aims to introduce a one-stop, everyday, lifestyle app that complements consumers’ daily lives
- Interconnected ecosystem of consumer services will help make everyday lives easier
GRAB unveiled its vision of an empowered future of seamless mobility, on-demand food delivery, logistics, cashless payments, and financial services for the people of Malaysia and Southeast Asia - all within one mobile app.
Soon, from the moment they wake up, consumers can book a GrabCar to get to work, pay for their favourite nasi lemak with GrabPay for lunch, deliver gifts to their loved ones through GrabExpress, order their dinner and eat in the comfort of their home with GrabFood.
“We are in a position to power this future of smart cities for consumers, because of the interconnectedness of each of our services and how they help each other grow. We started with making transport more efficient, and now, we are introducing GrabFood and GrabPay as a mobile wallet to Malaysia soon. Transport and food are two of the most relevant use cases of our GrabPay mobile wallet, allowing Malaysian consumers to enjoy the benefits of a cashless society.
“By building a technology platform that serves the most important everyday lifestyle needs of our consumers, we are benefitting an entire ecosystem of connected users who are not only passengers and driver partners, but also increasingly merchants and delivery partners. We can help everyone, particularly micro-entrepreneurs (such as driver-partners, merchants, small and medium-sized enterprises), grow their businesses and serve consumers better with how each of our service is interlinked,” said Grab Malaysia country head Sean Goh (pic).
The future of Grab according to consumers
When Grab crossed the milestone of one billion rides across Southeast Asia in October 2017, Grab surveyed consumers in the region to find out what people in Southeast Asia envisioned Grab would be like in ten years’ time.
The majority of the 500 consumers who responded wished for a one-stop, everyday, lifestyle app that complements their daily lives, as captured in this blog post.
Today, Grab brings this vision of a future smart city closer to consumers, as showcased by a video. The video visualises how Grab’s interconnected ecosystem of consumer services will help make everyday lives of Malaysians and consumers across the region easier through the use of technology.
As Grab’s service offerings expand, more and more consumers, drivers, delivery couriers, and merchants will benefit in many ways including:
Transport: Beyond just ride-hailing, Grab’s larger mobility vision is to enable a multi-modal future that serves people’s first- and last-mile needs more seamlessly. In the near future, consumers will be able to mix and match different transport options based on their travel preferences and budget.
With better integration of public and private transportation options in one platform, consumers can choose to ride across and pay for multiple modes of transport seamlessly in one single journey. For instance, they can take an on-demand shuttle bus, continue their journey on public transit, and finally take a JustGrab to their final destination - all through one Grab app.
Payments: By expanding the use of GrabPay as a mobile wallet beyond transport, both consumers and merchants have a more seamless and secure way of transacting. Consumers can enjoy the benefits of a cashless society such as greater convenience and a more seamless retail experience, while traditional, cash-based businesses are able to increase productivity and save business costs by going cashless.
With a large transport and food user base, GrabPay and GrabRewards will also become real revenue drivers for micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses, giving them access to new customers in an affordable way.
Financial services: Grab’s fintech offerings create new economic opportunities for millions of unbanked and underbanked consumers, drivers and small businesses across Southeast Asia.
Over six million micro-entrepreneurs across the region have been enabled by Grab’s platform to date, and Grab targets to enable 100 million micro-entrepreneurs by 2020.
Lifestyle: With on-demand transport, food, and delivery enabled by one mobile wallet, consumers will have their most important everyday needs met.
The opportunity and flexibility to drive, deliver or offer consumer services through the Grab platform and to earn more income or business revenue at their own time and pace is also open to everyone who want to leverage on the opportunities of a digital economy.
GrabFood and GrabPay mobile wallet
Consumers in Malaysia will soon be able to enjoy the convenience of having their favourite food delivered right to their doorsteps. Grab’s new on-demand food delivery service, GrabFood, will enable consumers to order and pay for their food seamlessly with GrabPay, while enjoying GrabRewards points for every order.
GrabFood will add greater convenience to the daily lives of consumers, while creating new income and job opportunities for delivery partners. Merchant partners will enjoy incremental business revenue by tapping on the large user base of Grab.
Grab is currently piloting GrabFood in selected areas such as Sri Hartamas, Bangsar, Mont Kiara and Bukit Damansara to gather consumers’ feedback so as to constantly improve user experience. GrabFood will be available in more areas later this month.
Beyond transport and food, Grab will also be looking at expanding the use of GrabPay as a mobile wallet to enable consumers to pay traditional, cash-based merchants at their shops in the next few weeks.
“GrabFood and GrabPay mobile wallet are the next major steps in our move to serve the daily essential needs of consumers. Each day, millions of people in Southeast Asia rely on ride-hailing services to bring them from place to place, as well as food delivery services to save time from travelling around in congested cities to satisfy their cravings.
“Food delivery is a natural extension of our transport offerings, and these services can be enabled by one GrabPay mobile wallet to bring about greater convenience for consumers. With our acquisition of Uber’s operations in Malaysia and the expansion of GrabFood across the region, we are working with local merchant and delivery-partners to deliver the best of Malaysia’s kitchens to the doorsteps of millions in the very near future,” added Goh.
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