Vietnamese ride-hailing apps turn the tables

Ten years ago, Grab entered Vietnam with the GrabTaxi model, breaking all the rules of the passenger transport market. Massive promotions, smartphone ride-hailing applications and generous incentives for drivers have pushed traditional taxis into a passive position.

Just a few years later, the race was packed with new names like Go-Viet (later Gojek), Be, Vato, Mai Linh Bike, Baemin, ShopeeFood.

Peak 2018-2019, promotional money poured in like a waterfall, drivers received weekly bonuses, customers received "rain of incentives" every day.

The fever did not last long as many domestic platforms were quickly eliminated from the game due to lack of capital and operational difficulties, leaving the playing field for foreign "giants" such as Grab, Gojek, Baemin, ShopeeFood and a domestic competitor, Be.

Grab not only dominates market share but also becomes a "super app" with more than 15 services from GrabCar, GrabBike to GrabFood, GrabMart, GrabExpress.

Success comes from operational capabilities based on heat map data to predict demand points, optimal routing, order matching mechanism to shorten waiting time and a wide ecosystem of partners from restaurants, small shops to small traders.

According to Grab, for GrabFood alone, the number of stores increased 5 times compared to 2019, the average revenue of partners increased 3 times compared to 2018, and the productivity of two-wheeled drivers increased 30% compared to 2014.

But as ride-hailing habits take shape, local advantage with micro-knowledge of individual neighborhoods, rush hours, and travel habits begins to create new competitive advantages.

The turning point came in 2023 when Xanh SM, the brand of billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, appeared and took only 2 years to surpass Grab.

According to Mordor Intelligence's annual summary report on the taxi market in Vietnam, the leading technology taxi market in the fourth quarter of 2024 with 37.41% market share, compared to Grab's 36.62%, far surpassing Be (5.55%), Mai Linh (4.81%) and Vinasun (2.44%).

This is the first time in more than a decade that a Vietnamese app has led a market that has been dominated by foreign companies. In 2020, according to Statista, Grab, Gojek and Be accounted for nearly 99% of the market share, while 17 domestic apps shared just over 1%.

In September 2024, Gojek withdrew, leaving the two-horse race between Xanh SM and Grab. In the first quarter of 2025, Xanh SM widened the gap, accounting for 39.85% of the market share compared to Grab's 35.57%, benefiting from Ho Chi Minh City preparing a plan to convert all 400,000 motorbikes of technology drivers to electric.

Grab is not sitting still, launching many plans to compete. In early 2025, at the GrabX event in Singapore, the company announced a series of new features using artificial intelligence (AI), family accounts to help parents book cars for their children safely, a "one-person" GrabFood collection, selling restaurant vouchers, pre-booking cars, and international travel packages.

Holding 9% market share, Be is steadfast in its "super app" strategy integrating 12 essential service groups - from ride-hailing, food delivery, ticket booking, payment to hourly housekeeping, with more than 10 million users.

By 2024, transaction volume will increase by 60%, users will increase by 50%, 70% of customers will use two or more services and spend 25 times more than the group using only one service.

Be Group has also just raised 30 million USD and nearly 740 billion VND from VPBankS, aiming to reach 20 million users and gross revenue of 200 million USD by 2026.