Go-Jek officially announced its service in Merauke, after making the same move in Sabang a month earlier. With the additional areas, Go-Jek is now available in 70 cities throughout Indonesia.
The launching is attended by Budi Karya (Minister of Transportation) and Rudiantara (Minister of Communication and Information), along with Go-Jek’s board of Directors and Commissioners.
Go-Jek plans to reach other cities as well. They claim to have massive requests from the public to reach their areas.
Previously, Grab had its services operated first in Aceh and Papua last year. Grab is claimed to be the first ride-hailing player to get this achievement.
Nadiem Makarim, Go-Jek’s CEO and Founder, expected this expansion to capture more SMEs and micro-entrepreneurs, such as driver-partner which makes benefit from technology.
“We want to provide equal opportunities for people in other Southeast Asia countries to feel the benefits of Go-Jek in facilitating their daily lives,” he said on Wed (15/8).
In his perspective, they happened to reach the two ends of east and west Indonesia due to the socializing issue. Not only for locals but also its government, how technology provided by Go-Jek can have an economic impact on the community.
In addition, Go-Jek also performs its own formula in calculating basic rate service based on two things. Those are the purchasing power of locals and the net income from various standards. For example, fuel consumption, food prices, and so on.
“After the calculation, we’ll see how many incentives, basic rates, and continue to be optimized to remain dynamic, while adjusting supply and demand. However, we can’t standardize each region, the conditions will vary.”
He also tried to add more locations in Indonesia, it’s due to Go-Jek’s team observations that many people demand Go-Jek’s presence in their areas. Even though they’re not from big cities with heavy traffic.
This condition, for Makarim, was quite shocking. All this time he assumed that Go-Jek was needed only in big cities as a solution to the occurring heavy traffic.
“Our assumption that Go-Jek is only needed in big cities which stuck, the fact is, transportation needs are a problem for all Indonesians. Many people from tier 2 and tier 3 cities have called us in.”
Without any definite answer, he still expects Go-Jek to be available in all over Indonesia soon.
Regional expansion
In the same occasion, he also explained the progress of Go-Jek’s expansion in Southeast Asia. He said Go-Viet received a positive response from the Vietnamese community after its soft launch. Go-Viet has claimed to win a 15% market share in Ho Chi Minh.
“I also tried using Go-Viet during the soft launch. It surprisingly gets a positive appreciation from the Vietnamese community. Go-Viet operation is getting more engagement by conventional motorcycle taxi drivers there.”
He expected, through this expansion, Go-Jek’s steps can inspire other companies to follow. That it is time for local companies to compete in the international ring.
“Why does expansion important? Innovation from Indonesia can be a world class. It is very important for local companies to compete on the world stage. We hope that Go-Jek can motivate Indonesians to move faster through regional expansion,” he concluded.
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian
