Singapore's Grab takes on Google in digital mapping & More News Here

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s Grab will begin promoting mapping knowledge to enterprises because it diversifies right into a market the place present gamers like Google have a stranglehold.

In its newest sortie aimed toward profitability, Grab, maybe greatest recognized for its ride-hailing service, will license the mapping knowledge it collects from its drivers and customers to tech corporations, logistics suppliers and telcos. The firm didn’t give particulars concerning licensing charges however sees a Southeast Asian market value $1 billion by 2025, it introduced on Wednesday.

The tremendous app enterprise has “always depended heavily on accurate, high-quality mapping technology,” co-founder Tan Hooi Ling stated at a media occasion on Wednesday. “We are turning these unique capabilities that we’ve now built and invested into a new revenue opportunity.”

Existing gamers like Google and Dutch firm TomTom already dominate the mapping and geolocation fields. But Grab says it has an edge over the incumbents: plentiful crowdsourced knowledge from the eight Southeast Asian markets it operates in.

Based on real-time suggestions from associate drivers, together with photographs captured from cameras hooked up to drivers’ helmets, Grab says it collects knowledge on highway closures, accidents and toll modifications in actual time. In addition, modifications in drop-off factors in house buildings and malls will be up to date on the fly based mostly on person knowledge.

“Mapping Southeast Asia is extremely complex,” stated Philipp Kandal, head of the engineering staff for Grab’s mapping enterprise. Despite the speedy development of buildings and roads in the area’s bustling cities, Grab can present updates on a every day and even hourly foundation. Conventional companies, he stated, provide month-to-month or yearly updates.

Grab started utilizing OpenStreetMap, a crowdsourced database, as its base map in 2017. It additionally has been utilizing paid third-party map and site companies. The firm has since collected knowledge on 33 million spots. This contains knowledge that last-mile drivers want, from precise drop-off factors at airports to the usefulness of slim aspect streets.

Built from the bottom up, GrabMaps, as the brand new service is known as, has already allowed the mother or father firm to save lots of “very significant cost” on the paid third-party companies, Tan stated. The firm now not makes use of these industrial companies in seven of the eight international locations it operates in, with Indonesia remaining to be transitioned later this 12 months.

As Grab expands into new companies like digital maps, it’s nonetheless looking for profitability.

The service supplier amassed the biggest shares of Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing and meals supply markets amid fierce competitors from rivals like Indonesia’s GoTo and Singapore’s Sea by doling out pricey incentives.

Ride-hailing and meals supply stay key segments. For the 12 months ended 2021, they made up near 90% of the group’s whole income.

In May, Grab stated it will start tapering incentives later this 12 months as drivers steadily return from lockdowns. But as competitors for drivers stays, rival operators may preserve their very own incentives, leaving Grab capable of lure fewer drivers, probably ensuing in fewer rides and affecting the dimensions of its mapping knowledge.

Another of Grab’s focuses has been monetary companies. In late May, Grab mixed its digital funds, insurance coverage and lending companies underneath the GrabFin model.

In a partnership with Singtel, Grab gained a full Singapore banking license and expects to launch a digital financial institution later this 12 months. In April, the consortium additionally gained a banking license in Malaysia.

As for its mapping foray, Grab stated it focused giant tech gamers in its preliminary outreach, including that it expects to broaden the enterprise past Southeast Asia. In the longer term, it’s going to additionally present mapping knowledge for indoor navigation.

“Commercializing this technology,” Tan stated, “is another step forward for our young but fast-growing enterprise and new initiatives business.”

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