Why Uber's losing out to locals in Southeast Asia

By any measure, the April 2016 decision by Uber Technologies Inc. to sell its China operations to rival Didi Chuxing was a defeat. The brief but spectacular battle between the two ride-hailing behemoths had cost Uber at least US$2bil and earned it little more than the enmity of the Chinese government. The only silver lining seemed to be that Uber, free of an expensive price war, could focus its resources on other markets, including rapidly growing Southeast Asia.

That's now going to be a lot harder. Earlier this week, GrabTaxi Holdings Pte. Ltd., Southeast Asia's dominant ride-hailing company, announced it had raised US$2bil (RM8.55bil) with another US$500mil (RM2.1bil) on the way to help it lock up the region. The company was already well ahead of Uber locally, thanks to a deft business plan that focused on meeting the needs of the Southeast Asian consumer, especially in payments. The fresh funds should widen that lead – and call into question whether Uber's one-app-fits – all approach to the global ride-hailing business can work.