Home-grown ride-hailing app RydeX gets off to good start

Home-grown ride-hailing app firm Ryde tapped into the growing private-hire car market on Wednesday (2^nd May) in a bid to jostle with Grab and fellow newcomers. Its Chief Executive Terence Zou said the new app had catered to 1,000 trips by noon. "It's a good start," he said. "But I think there is obviously a lot of room for growth. "We aim to corner 10 percent of the market by the year end, which I think is quite doable."

Mr. Zou, who started Ryde three years ago as a car-pooling app, was referring to the total point-to-point transport market, which is around one million trips a day. RydeX is muscling into a segment currently dominated by Grab, which entered Singapore five years ago.

Other players planning to do the same include India's Jugnoo, Indonesia's Go-Jek, Singapore-headquartered MVL (Mass Vehicle Ledger) Foundation and Malaysia's DacSee.

With RydeX, Ryde now has 'a complete suite of services', said Mr. Zou, referring to its ongoing car-pooling app as well as an app used for hailing ComfortDelGro taxis. He would not reveal trip numbers, but said they are 'healthy'.

Taxi driver David Chan, 58, said he hopes all drivers will be given the freedom to use as many hailing apps as they wish. "If passengers can choose any app to a get a ride, why can't drivers do the same?" said Mr. Chan, a taxi driver of 25 years. ComfortDelGro cabbies are not barred from using the Grab app. However, they cannot use the JustGrab service because ComfortDelGro has refused to endorse Grab and cabbies technically are supposed to offer only metered fares. JustGrab fares are not based on the taxi meter.

Mr. Chan said he has heard of RydeX, but has not had time to check it out. He said, "We should open the market to allow drivers to choose the platform they want to be on. That way, it's good for passengers too, as there will be shorter waiting time." Mr. Chan said his income had fallen by 30 percent to 40 percent since Uber and Grab entered the fray in 2013.

During the two weeks he was using JustGrab (before it was disallowed), he said he was able to make $140 to $150 a day on a single shift, before rental and fuel. That, he said, was the same as what he made before 2013. "Before Uber and Grab came in, there were no private-hire cars," he said. "Now, how many private-hire cars are there?"