airasia Group and Gojek have entered a partnership seeing airasia acquiring Gojek’s operations in Thailand. Gojek, Southeast Asia’s leading mobile on-demand services and payments platform, has grown from their roots in Indonesia as the best known provider of motorbike taxis.
airasia Group and Gojek
The deal, seen as a win-win for both airasia Group and Gojek, is expected to rev up expansion of the airasia Super App in Asean, while Gojek can increase investments in its Vietnam and Singapore operations. In return, Gojek will receive shareholding in the airasia Super App whose market value is around USD1 billion. The deal gives both parties a strong foundation to explore additional opportunities for collaboration and synergies in one of the fastest-growing regions in the world.
As part of its commitment to Thailand, the airasia Super App will continue to leverage the existing ecosystem services for riders, merchants and customers, They also plan to add new offerings, including groceries and beauty items. Future short term plans include regional expansion into new markets like Chiang Mai and Phuket.
The Gojek app will continue to operate for existing users in Bangkok until 31st July 2021 to ensure stability for Gojek drivers and merchants. These will be invited to onboard the airasia Super App in coming weeks. airasia will work with the existing Gojek team in Thailand, to operate the Gojek business during the transition period. They will then move to the airasia super app, bringing local market expertise to the business with their understanding of Thai user needs.
Concurrently, in a realignment of its international strategy, Gojek is increasing investment in its Vietnam and Singapore operations which have been identified as strong sources of future growth for the business.
This future growth includes:
- increased driver and merchant acquisition initiatives
- enhancements to user experience and
- launching new products and services
airasia Group CEO Tony Fernandes described today’s announcement as
…. the start of a tremendous long term strategic partnership with Gojek which is sure to rock the industry…… By taking on Gojek’s well-established Thai business, we’ll be able to turbo charge our ambitions in this space to become a leading Asean challenger super app.
He pointed out that airasia already have a complete digital economy ecosystem, which has successfully established over 15 different non airline products and lifestyle services on their digital e-commerce platform in Malaysia.
…. Now it’s time to take it to the next level. In response to overwhelming regional demand, we are setting our sights on bringing our Super App offerings to all of our key markets, following the successful roll out in Thailand.
Gojek CEO Kevin Aluwi gave credit to to the accomplishments of their team in Thailand, who grew the business from nothing. It’s now an on-demand service provider making a difference to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country.
…. The business was built on a huge amount of talent and passion and we will of course, work closely with our Thai employees as well as airasia through this transition. We are proud of and deeply grateful for everything Gojek Thailand has achieved, as well as for our loyal Thai consumers and driver and merchant partners, who have always been at the heart of what we do.
airasia’s airline business, though badly affected by border closures resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic still underpins the company ethos.
President of airasia Digital, Aireen Omar, said the announcement of this collaboration delivers proof of the success of our digital transformation and pivot from an airline to a one stop lifestyle super app, anchored on travel.
…. What we have achieved in the past year is incredible, including changing the mindset of thousands of Allstars (staff) from an airline mentality to becoming digitally focused, which is no mean feat.
The airasia Digital group is made up of three key digital companies. The airasia Super App provides a lifestyle platform offering
- travel
- e-commerce
- financial services
- farm to table
- health
- edutech products and services
Logistics venture Teleport is their fast growing e-commerce logistics company. They offer instant door-to-door deliveries locally and within 24hrs across Southeast Asia.
airasia’s BigPay fintech business is now on track to become the region’s first virtual bank.
…. The airasia brand is already strong in Thailand and we are thrilled to confirm this partnership today supporting the upcoming launch of the airasia Super App in the kingdom and cementing a long term future for Gojek’s employees, drivers and merchants. Tassapon Bijleveld, AirAsia Thailand Executive Chairman
…. Thai people are already ahead of the curve in embracing the digital revolution, mobile and real time activities including e-commerce, fintech and online entertainment are a way of life.
The Gojek application is available for download via iOS and Android.
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