Grab, GOTO, SEA --- Who has the hegemony of the super app in Southeast Asia? [Guest Contribution]

This is a contribution by Golden Gate Ventures Managing Partner Vinnie Lauria.The articles published in the "Entrepreneur Asia Pacific version (online version)" will be translated and reprinted with the consent of the author and the publisher.

This Article Was First Published in Entrepreneur Apac.

In Southeast Asia, the competition of two decacorns, which aims for IPOs with the roots of Grab and GOTO, is attracting attention.However, the three battle royals are actually in the world, one of the world's leading emerging markets, which is one of the leading emerging markets in the world.

Both GRAB and GOTO companies are evolving beyond the dispatch service and food delivery.Grab and GOTO are building a new core, a set of payment app, which will be a gateway to sell all products in ASEAN regions in 10 mobile -friendly countries, as well as dispatch services and food delivery.Both companies face a strong third competition called SEA based in Singapore.

This interesting problem is not who wins, but how to win.The three companies, Grab, GOTO, and SEA, are on different ways for owning an app cluster that controls everything.Here, let's introduce the profiles of the three companies and see what kind of position each company is in the five important strategic fields.

candidate

GRAB was established in Malaysia in 2012, and immediately moved its headquarters to Singapore, establishing a total ASEAN presence in about 300 metropolitan areas, including Bangkok, Hanoi, and Manila.It provides financial products such as electronic accounts, loans, and insurance, mainly on the app "Grabpay".

GOTO is a company that GOJEK and TOKOPEDIA recently merged, and GOJEK was named because the motorcycle driver was a street level soldier.

Information disclosure: Golden Gate Ventures is a GOJEK small shareholder through the acquisition of RUMA MAPAN.He is also a GOJEK spin -out company.

The SEA is based on the production and sales company Garena.SEA also owns SEAMONEY, a multi -national EC platform and a payment app.

5つの戦略的要素でcandidateを採点

This super -app contest has four important business competitions: dispatch services, delivery, entertainment, e -commerce, and payment apps.In the fifth "intangible area", the existence of founder CEOs with sustainable leadership and vision is said to be strategically valuable.Here are the reasons why each element is important and how I evaluate Grab, Goto, and SEA for each element.Here, one point is "completely ready", 0 points are "not ready", and the middle is 0..A simple scoring system with 5 points was used.

配車サービスとフードデリバリ

The dispatching service alone may not make a profit, but the fact that a car is running on the street can make a profit in some respects.The dispatch service will be a loss leader (profitable product with profit) to increase the number of users.Food delivery will create profits and build a network of member stores that accept their own payment apps.These activities can increase brand awareness in the real world by actually seeing corporate activities.

ストリーミングエンタテインメント

As Yinglan Tan of Insignia Ventures Partners said last year, tech platform companies needed a plan for users to continue to be involved in the platform for a long time, which is the role of streaming entertainment.At the same time as attracting attention, maintaining attention will create your own profits and people will reflect your company on the screen.

e コマース

Amazon's e -commerce model will be sold in a low -margin because a large amount of stock is purchased in advance and stored in the warehouse.Asian companies prefer a lightweight marketplace model that matches sellers and buyers, and achieve high profits in mass production.However, in Southeast Asia, the competition of e -commerce is fierce, and various companies have entered, such as Lazada under Alibaba and Unicorn Bukalapak in Indonesia.

決済アプリ

As the success of Alipay in China shows, owning a widely used settlement app has three major benefits.The app is a source of revenue for paid services, a hub for selling financial products (as ant Financial), and a treasure of customer data that uses apps.By analyzing this data, it is possible to target marketing in the future, judge customer consumption, and form a strategic venture for new product lines and partnerships.

創業者 CEO の存在

Tech startups cannot grow significantly just by expanding the size of the original products and business models.It is necessary for technological innovation and evolution, and it is worth the founder (or one of them) leading the company through such a developmental stage.At ALIBABA, JACK MA (Maun) continued to protect his vision and culture as an entrepreneur.Apple prospered early under Steve Jobs, sluggish when he left, and re -inspired him when he came back.The major founders, including Amazon, Facebook, Airbnb, Microsoft, and Intel, are all sustainable leadership.It is ideal to take over to a new leader after the company has established a solid position.

In the ASEAN Super App War, no one has yet established a solid position.Many innovations will occur in the future.Companies led by the founder CEO will have intangible but great strengths.

Total score

So far, the race looks equal, but I believe that it may be dominant.In my reading, Grab's strengths are settlement and regional expansion, and SEA's strengths are sticky entertainment and e -commerce.GOTO's strength is Indonesia and is preparing for the total battle.The type of company that I like as a VC is a company that is fighting with a back to the wall and surviving.GOTO is such a company.

Southeast Asia is growing greatly.Not only one winner, but also each stakeholder has room for strategic, and can be widely considered from acquisition to the mega merger.In any case, there is one thing that can be expected.Looking at how the battle royal develops, you will be able to know a lot about the future of super -app platform companies in other markets.

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