Indonesian ride-hailing and on-demand service startupGo-Jek is considering an initial public offering in Indonesia, said the company president Andre Soelistyo to reporters on Monday without framing a timeline for the floating.
President Soelistyo met with Indonesia Stock Exchange chief executive to discuss the potential IPO, as well as the profit-making requirement that demands companies to become profitable within two years of listing. He also mentioned the possibility of a duo-listing after Indonesia.
Founded in 2010, the company offers motorbike- and taxi-hailing services, food, and grocery delivery, as well as mobile payment in its home country. The company plans to expand its businesses to the Philippines in early 2018, with other SE Asian markets to follow later the same year.
In June 2017, at Wall Street Journal’s D.Live Asia conference in Hong Kong, Go-Jek CEO Nadiem Makarim claimed the company has about 10 million weekly active users and 40 million downloads in the country, holding 50% of the country’s ride-hailing market and 95% of the online meal delivery market.
Outside of Indonesia, Go-Jek is locked up in a fierce competition with Singapore-based Grab and Uber. Unlike Go-Jek who focus on its home market, Grab operates in 8 countries and 168 cities in SE Asia, handling 3.5 million daily rides. KrASIA reported that Grab has been in talks with Uber to acquire the latter’s SE Asian operations, while Uber chief Dara Khosrowshahi claimed the company will continue investing aggressively in the region, even though financial losses are expected.
A week ago, KrASIA reported, citing Reuters’ sources, that Indonesia-based company is raising a higher than targeted USD 1.5 billion in the latest round led by a dozen of investors including Google, Temasek, Chinese social networking and gaming giant Tencent and the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock. The round is expected to value the company at USD 6 billion. In July 2017, Grab raised a USD 2 billion from China’s #1 ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing, SoftBank and Toyota Motor.
Both Grab and Go-Jek have rolled out their mobile payment services, GrabPay and GoPay respectively, trying to emulate the successful WeChat Pay and Alipay in the region.
Southeast Asia is the third largest market for ride-hailing after China and the United States and is expected to keep growing. The ride-hailing market in the region is expected to be worth USD 13.1 billion in 2025, more than quintuple the number in 2015, according to a study by Google and Temasek.