Southeast Asian ride hailing firm Grab aims to become ‘superapp’ platform

Southeast Asia’s dominant ride-hailing company Grab has launched an open-platform strategy, allowing third party services including content providers to operate within its app as it aims to become an “everyday superapp”.

The open-platform, dubbed GrabPlatform, will allow more “highly used everyday services” to be incorporated into the Grab app via a suite of application program interfaces (APIs), the company said. The home screen has also been redesigned to give users easy access to new services and information when they require them.

The announcement made Tuesday confirms a South China Morning Post report in June that said the company would soon allow external service providers on its platform.

The in-app news feed will also display content from Yahoo, which is a content partner for Grab. The feed will include news, reviews and entertainment, including short videos and even games for Grab users.

The push towards becoming a platform of services as opposed to just offering ride-hailing is similar to the approach that Chinese internet giants have taken. Tencent’s WeChat, for example, has evolved from being a messaging app to offering everything from food delivery services, games, payments and even e-commerce.

Grab is also moving into the groceries space, partnering with Indonesia’s Happyfresh to launch an online-grocery delivery service in Jakarta, where the grocer will be able to tap Grab’s network of drivers for deliveries to customers. The service will be rolled out later to other cities where Grab operates.