A group consisting of 17 major Vietnamese taxi companies on December 10 formed an alliance with the support of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), in a bid to compete with tech-based hailing app Grab, which has rapidly expanding in the country.
Illustrative photo.
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With the future addition of other companies, namely Open99 and VIC, the car fleet of the alliance in Hanoi is expected to reach 4,000.
In 2019, the alliance sets target of being available in all 63 cities and provinces, while encouraging more companies to join and have a total cars under its wing of 20,000, up 8,000 from the current number of 12,000.
To compete with Grab in terms of technology, the alliance is operating based on the EMDDI ride-hailing application, which was developed by a group of programmers from Vietnam National University.
Le Vinh Quang, vice chairman of Vietnam’s taxi alliance, said it takes passengers up to 1 – 2 minutes to book a car through the application, so EMDDI is capable of competing with Grab.
Vu Tien Loc, VCCI’s chairman, stated the alliance aims to provide a better service and apply the model of sharing economy and digital technology.
Late in August, three Hanoi’s taxi companies, including Thanh Cong, Ba Sao and Sao Hanoi, established a taxi company under the name of G7 in face of the stiff competition posted by Grab.
According to Hanoi’s Transport Department, the city had 17,400 taxi cars registered in 2017.
Grab on March 26 confirmed its acquisition of Uber's South-east Asia operations for an undisclosed sum, raising concern over its alleged monopoly status in the region's ride-hailing market.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade in May considered Grab's acquisition of Uber in Vietnam an infringement of the Law on Competition, arguing its combined market share after the deal exceeds 50%.
Based on that, the Vietnam Competition Authority under the ministry is considering launching an investigation into the acquisition, while urging Grab to provide more evidences and calculate the exact combined market share.
