Grab's mobile app down for several hours on Tuesday night

Users faced problems with ride-hailing company Grab's mobile application for several hours on Tuesday night (3^rd April). The app showed up blank and greyed out at the bottom where the 'Book' button usually appears for Apple phones, while a check on Android phones showed the following message, "Sorry :-( Looks like we weren't able to connect to our server. Please try again in a few minutes."

Members of Telegram chat group SgRoad Blocks/Traffic News first reported issues with the app from 8:31pm, with one user claiming that 'Grab has been down for more than an hour'. The app was accessible again after 11:00pm.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, Grab said in a statement on Wednesday that the outage was 'due to problems with our underlying infrastructure'. "Our third-party infrastructure providers are immediately fixing the problems on their platforms," it added.

GrabCar driver Muhammad Ali, 36, told ST that he first noticed the issue at around 8:00pm when he was dropping off a passenger. "I could not end the trip," he said. "I wanted to have a few more trips to go, now I'm still waiting. I think if at 10:00pm it's not working I will go home."

Mr. Ali said he could have earned about $80 in the 1.5 hours that the app was down. He usually drives his GrabCar from 7:30am to 1:00pm, then again from 5:00pm to 10:00pm. Mr. Ali said a similar issue had occurred about two months back. He added that he received an SMS from Grab at 9:36pm informing him and other drivers about the problems with the app.

The message read, "Dear Partner, due to a technical issue, you may not be able to receive or complete bookings as per normal. We are working hard to fix the issue and will be back to serve you as soon as we can. Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for your support."

Grab had addressed the issue in a post on its Facebook page at 9:23pm, writing, "Dear customer, we are experiencing a service interruption, which may result in your Grab app not functioning as expected."

It added that its team was 'working hard to fix this, and we are working around the clock to resolve it'. The issue was also experienced across the border in Malaysia, with Malaysian news site The Star reporting service interruptions as well.

Grab currently offers services in more than 190 cities across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. Grab last week announced that it was acquiring American rival Uber's operations in South East Asia for an undisclosed amount.