Indonesian e-hailing firm Gojek has given an official response to rumours that it has plans to enter the Malaysian market. Unfortunately, a company spokesperson confirmed to Tech In Asia that Gojek has no intention of entering the Malaysian market.
Talks of Gojek bringing its presence into the country cropped up after a Honda City bearing the Gojek logo was recently spotted in Kuala Lumpur. The car was seen driving around the city centre with another vehicle carrying a film crew and a traffic policeman following them.
The sighting prompted rumours that the e-hailing giant might be bringing its GoCar service after its plan to launch a bike-hailing service in Malaysia fell through. According to the spokesperson, what was witnessed was actually just the company filming footage for an upcoming campaign slated to be released later this year.
While the company did not clarify why it was filming in Malaysia without any plans to launch here, it is clear that we will not be seeing Gojek competing in the local market anytime soon. Of course, this is not much of a surprise as Gojek was never seen on the list of registered e-hailing companies by the Land Public Transport Agency (APAD).
As a reminder, the Indonesian firm did have intentions to come to Malaysia with its motorcycle ride-hailing service back in 2019 after the country agreed to bike-hailing trials to legalise the transport mode. However, things did not pan out well when the government changed its mind and banned the practice once again last year.
The government cited high death rates caused by motorcycle accidents as the reason behind the u-turn, closing the possibility of Gojek bringing its popular service here. Since then, several players have popped into the scene to take on Grab’s dominance, including AirAsia Ride, inDriver, GOJO, Kumpool, and several others.
(Source: Tech In Asia)
