Grab moving fast to dominate all things wheels-sharing in S'pore

Marketplace benefits from more competition.

Sulaiman Daud | March 30, 2018, 01:07 PM

Uber is leaving Singapore allowing Grab to be the main private hire vehicle service here.

And without missing a beat, Grab has made plans to dominate the bike-sharing and personal mobility device sector too.

GrabCycle

On March 9, Grab announced GrabCycle Beta, a "marketplace app" that aims to bring together many different bike-sharing and personal mobility device services under one banner.

It will collaborate with existing services like oBike, GBikes, Anywheel and Popscoot.

According to Grab:

"Commuting can be a more seamless experience if multiple transport services are available and easy to access."

Photo via Grab.

To promote the new service, Grab announced 100 percent cashback on GrabCycle, from March 31 to April 12.

Riders will get a 100 percent rebate on all purchases made on GrabCycle, with a minimum spend of S$1.

You can read more about the terms and conditions here.

It makes a lot of sense for Grab to be moving into this particular market.

After all, lots of people use shared bikes to get around in tandem with car rides.

More competition

But the idea of entrusting all our private-hire options to one company should be examined carefully.

On March 29, The Straits Times reported that the Competition Commission of Singapore has started an investigation into the merger of Grab and Uber.

If necessary, the deal could be blocked or modified due to a "substantial lessening of competition".

Both parties have responded to the Commission's request for more information.

Still, if the deal does move forward as planned, it's hard to envision any new challengers stepping up to the plate.

But one company trying to do just that is local start-up Ryde.

[related_story]

New app moving in

A homegrown carpooling app, Ryde announced on March 28 that it would launch its own private-hire car service, RydeX.

Said founder and CEO Terence Zou:

"Offering private-hire car services would complete our mobility suite to serve our users better.

We’ve always been planning to enter into the private hire space to complete our mobility suite, but right now I think is also an opportune time, I think the market needs more competition and that’s where we can provide consumers and drivers with an alternative platform and way to get around."

For the longest time, Singaporeans had very little choice when it came to hiring private transportation.

When ride-sharing apps emerged, it looked like the dawn of a new era.

But it didn't take long before Uber folded.

Commuters will find out if they have more choices, and not less, in the coming months.

Related story:

Top image from Grab