HONDA INVESTS IN GrabBike, MOTORCYCLE UNIT OF UBER’S MAIN SOUTHEAST ASIA COMPETITOR

Uber has been around for a while, and given that they have had a head-start in the business of cab-hailing all over the world and being the first ever company to organize this concept into what we see today, they have gained majorly over any other company that wants to delve into this kind of business. However, the fact that their tentacles reach into many countries of the world did not scare Grab, a start-up that offers the same kind of services on its principles, and this company has gone to on to become the primary rival of Uber in the South-eastern part of Asia. In the even more exciting news, Grab has grabbed some attention (all puns intended) from Japan where automobile maker, Honda, seems to have taken a liking and penned a deal with them.
For now, the details of this deal are still sketchy, and it cannot be told for sure what it is was contained in the agreement document. It would surely border on the line of driver education, the safety of motorbikes on the roads, efforts towards reduction of traffic congestion and environmental lockdowns, all through the medium of rideshare and related technology growths. To be specific, Honda took an interest in the motorbike section of Grab, and this has led to the speculation that the automobile world giant might be looking to supply some of its motorbikes to Grab for the easy running of its business. Like most ridesharing and cab hailing serves, Grab has a lot of recently commissioned vehicles in its fleet and of these are motorbikes too, so the deal is understandable.
It has also been revealed that how the deal is supposed to work out is not yet confirmed and for now, both companies are just still in talks on how to better make this agreement work for them. We remember that Grab posted their massive $750 million round as at the month of September and it is believed that somewhere in that lump sum is also some amount of money that Honda has invested in the business. For Grab, this is a perfect chance to surely get some more rides added to their fleet for either free or at a very discounted price, and Honda gets to have cheap advertisement and publicity for its products, among other things. Grab is, however, not obliged to satisfy the interests of Honda only and the Japanese company should understand that, given that the south-eastern ridesharing platform is in other deals with Tokyo Century (a leasing company in Japan) and nuTonomy, another self-driving start-up business, to mention but a few.
Before looking at the option of expansion to outside the continent, Grab has made sure that it has set its foot in six countries in that southern region of Asia and they are also present in more than 34 cites till date. Knowing that the company was started just in 2012 by Anthony Tan and Hooi Ling Tan, this is a laudable improvement, all on top of a total of $1.4 billion in funding that they have managed to secure since then. Business has however, not been all rosy for Grab in their regions of operation as they face a lot of stiff opposition from the likes of Uber which is rapidly growing in the same region (and even has a deal with Toyota to its name also) and as well, Go-Jek which offers taxi services on motorbikes. Like every business would have a strategy to keep them in the game, Grab has been in the habit of taking its payment in cash from customers, considering that not everyone would have access to credit cards and bank accounts in regions such as that which they operate in. Uber has since adopted such a move also and currently; their cash payment option is being implemented in cities like Jakarta.
The fact that Honda would like to invest in a programme that supports people opting to go for sharing rides instead of getting their rides may look like a hindrance to the sales potential of the company in the short run but looking at it from a future perspective, they are just actually preparing for a shift in the balance of the car industry where most cars running would not be in private ownership but in some kind of shared agreement. They are not the only ones to have this kind of thoughts, as the likes of Toyota (who is already in agreement with Uber), Volkswagen and General Motors also have their links to ride-sharing services. Speaking of the recent deal is the President of Grab, Ming Maa, that “We are very excited to enhance the GrabBike user experience for our rapidly growing community of GrabBike drivers and riders by partnering with Honda, the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world, and create a more sustainable and efficient transport supply for Southeast Asia. We welcome Honda as a shareholder and key partner on innovative mobility solutions over time as we continue to drive Southeast Asia forward.”
Having been around for quite some time, four years to be exact and counting, Grab doesn’t seem to be slowing down in the rate at which it gets backings from companies and this new trust from Honda would surely do them more good than one. `