Article at a GlanceGrab, initially branded as the “Uber of Southeast Asia,” surpassed its powerful competitor Uber to become Southeast Asia’s leading super app with over 44 million monthly transacting users (MTUs), implementing the following hyper- localization strategies for its success.
1. It offered localized services reflecting each country’s culture and daily life, including cash payments and durian delivery.
2. It expanded services by identifying key transportation modes in each country, such as motorcycles and tuk-tuks, while optimizing mobility through proprietary maps tailored to regional characteristics.
3. Through hyper-local experiments, it tested automated messages with varying styles and tones for each city, reducing cancellation rates and improving the user experience.
At 11 p.m., Hooi Ling Tan, a McKinsey consultant working in Malaysia, finished work and hailed a taxi. As usual, she immediately turned on her phone and texted her mother the taxi’s license plate number and driver’s name from the license. While in the moving taxi, she sent location updates every 7 to 15 minutes. It was the best precaution a woman traveling alone late at night could take. Until the early 2010s, taxis in Malaysia represented an unsafe mode of transportation where women had to accept potential risks.
Anthony Tan, Tan’s Harvard Business School classmate, shared similar concerns. He was the third-generation executive of Tan Chong Motors, Malaysia’s largest automobile distribution group. His life changed dramatically after hearing complaints from another business school classmate visiting him in Malaysia. The visitor complained about the difficulty of finding taxis, uncertainty about drivers following proper routes and arbitrary fare-setting by drivers. One question from this classmate profoundly moved Tan, “Your great-grandfather was a taxi driver, and your grandfather pioneered the Japanese automobile industry in Malaysia. Yet Malaysian women still use taxis with significant anxiety. Shouldn’t you be doing something about this?”
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