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The Battle of Ride Hailing Service Giants in Indonesia: Go-Jek vs

Grab
● Based on the survey results, OVO usage exhibits strong O2O usage, while Go-Pay’s
strength is within Go-Jek’s mobile app ecosystem
● Go-Food is in the lead in food delivery, but Grab is catching up quickly
● Fraud is becoming a huge issue in the industry because it causes economic loss to a
company. According to Spire’s research, nearly 30 percent of Go-Jek’s total orders might
be fraudulent compared to 5 percent for Grab.

Jakarta, 30 January 2019 ∙ High consumption rate and mobility of its citizen, Indonesia is
definitely a magnetic country for businesses, in any form including ride hailing services.

The past few years were quite monumental for this type of sector as dozens of start up companies
emerged and tasted the market, however only two survive and dominate now. Grab, the Largest
Online Ride Hailing Service in Southeast Asia and Indonesian Unicorn Start-Up, Go-Jek.

The battle between two companies is intense as both of them are increasing their line of products.
The provided services, like food delivery, ride-hailing are similar in nature. Nevertheless, the
consumers are always be the final judge.

Spire Research and Consulting Indonesia, one of the leading global research company
headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, conducted a study on drivers and customers to know the
preference of ride hailing services based on several aspects, starting from consumer’s
awareness, usage frequencies, to their preference in using in each other’s e-money1.

“The most interesting findings by Spire is the existence of frauds and how the drivers perceive it,”
ungkap Jeffrey Bahar, Group Deputy CEO Spire Research and Consulting, in Jakarta, Tuesday
(29/1).

Based on Spire’s Consumers’ Awareness Survey, 75% and 61% respondents claimed Grab as
the brand that they use in the past 6 months and 3 months consecutively. Meanwhile 62% and
58% respondents picked Go-Jek in the same categories. Regardless, 50%, of respondents agree
that both Grab and Go-Jek are their favorite brands.

On the product usage frequency side, at the end of the 4th quarter 2018, Grab’s customers were
more frequent in using Grab’s line of products compared to Go-Jek’s. 34% of Grab-Car customers
are more likely to use the service on an average of 3-4 times a week, while Go-Car usage exhibits
less usage frequency at 25% of Go-Car customers are likely to use the service on an average of
1-2 times a week.

PT Spire Indonesia www.spireresearch.com

Wisma BNI Lt. 25 Unit 8-10
Jalan Jend. Sudirman Kav. 1
Jakarta 10220
Telp/Faks: (0210 57945800
Go-Jek’s Go-Ride on the other hand is still customer’s favorite as 64% of its customers like to use
Go-Ride for 1-2 times a day meanwhile Grab stands on the percentage of 58% in the same
category.

When it comes to food delivery, Go-Food is in the lead with 35 percent of respondents saying Go-
Food was the brand they most often used, but Grab is catching up quickly with 27 percent saying
they used GrabFood the most.

As of 2018, both apps were developing their e-money as a new way of e-payment in Indonesia.
Grab launched a cooperation with OVO, while Go-Jek believes in Go-Pay. Based on the survey
results, OVO usage exhibits strong O2O usage, while Go-Pay’s strength is within Go-Jek’s mobile
app ecosystem. For example, OVO is the preferred payment for offline items like phone balance,
parking bills and bill for non-food merchants, while Go-Pay is used to pay food-merchant bills (Go-
Food) and electricity bills through the Go-Jek app.

The most interesting finding as Spire found was fraud. Generally, fraud in online ride hailing
service is an open secret among drivers. Most of the drivers who committed it have similar
reasons as to why they do it, which is to increase their monthly income.

Fraud is becoming a huge issue in the industry because it causes economic loss to a company
and shows how vulnerable their systems are.

According to Spire’s research, nearly 30 percent of Go-Jek’s total transportation orders might be
fraudulent compared to 5 percent for Grab. This is based on an estimation of fraud orders against
total orders. This is a systemic problem for both companies and one that Go-Jek needs to
address.

According to Spire’s driver survey, as of 2018, nearly 60% of Go-Jek’s drivers say they commit
frauds on daily basis to boost their order numbers that affect their bonuses as well as their daily
income.

The drivers said that Go-Jek’s system is easier to trick by using apps that modify their location.
On the other hand, less than 10% of Grab’s drivers say they commit frauds.

Grab’s drivers said the Grab system is not easy to trick and the sanctions by the company was a
deterrence. Drivers also commented that both companies are improving their systems to better
detect frauds.

PT Spire Indonesia www.spireresearch.com

Wisma BNI Lt. 25 Unit 8-10
Jalan Jend. Sudirman Kav. 1
Jakarta 10220
Telp/Faks: (0210 57945800
Overall, both companies are growing rapidly in food delivery and ride-hailing but special attention
needs to be paid to the issue of fraud in order to ensure the healthy development of the technology
ecosystem in the country.

About Spire Research and Consulting

Spire Research and Consulting is a global market research and business consulting company,
especially for developing countries, which was established in Singapore in 2000. However, since
2016, the company that has representative offices in almost all Asia Pacific countries are under
the auspices of Yamada Business Consulting Group, Japan.

For further information and interview requests, please contact:

TechnoBusiness PR, A Member of TechnoBusiness Media
Up. Purjono Agus Suhendro
HP: 081703438888
Email: pr@technobusiness.id, purjono@technobusiness.id

PT Spire Indonesia www.spireresearch.com

Wisma BNI Lt. 25 Unit 8-10
Jalan Jend. Sudirman Kav. 1
Jakarta 10220
Telp/Faks: (0210 57945800