E-hailing is a service that calls for any form of transportation with the help of a device that can access the internet to transport a person from one point to another (Atkinson, 2019). The industry began because of a simple frustration with the struggle to get taxi cabs by cofounders of Uber - Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick, with the idea to be able to order a car with the push of a button on one's phone. The first app came into light in 2010 and went international in 2012. Uber has stirred up the taxi cab industry, one in which many find inefficient (Scott, 2015). Although unheard of 10 years ago, ride-hailing services have now grown into a multibillion-dollar industry (TheStar, 2019). Uber first came to Malaysia in 2013, and began disrupting taxi and transport services around the world, Southeast Asian rivals such as Grab and Go-Jek have risen to compete with it (Davis, 2018; Goh, 2014). As of March 2021, there are over 30 licensed e-hailing companies registered under Land Public Transport Agency (APAD) including EzCab, Riding Pink, PinknGo and many others alongside the dominant player of the industry, Grab Malaysia (APAD, 2021; The Star, 2019). With the existence of numerous companies in the industry, the strength of competition in the industry is arguable. 

Most of these e-hailing services offer similar services to the customers or riders making it especially important for companies to establish a solid brand identity by adhering to trademark laws and offering unique services in a saturated market (Tan, 2019). 

The increased demand for comfort and movement leads introduction of new players in the industry. One factor contributing to this is the simplicity of the business model. Nothing about the business model or its app is secret. It can be replicated by any other company without massive amounts of capital requirements. Thanks to internet-based nature of the business model, new entrants to the market will not have issue to join the industry. Such high numbers of competitors in the industry, creates abundance of choices to the customers, i.e., the riders giving power and option to the buyers. It doesn't cost anything for riders to start using another mobility platform (Dudovskiy, 2021). There is no membership or contract needed to sign up, as customers only need to download the app and register for free, hence no permanent relationship with any of the e-hailing companies (Adamkasi, 2017). These companies do not own vehicle among its fleets. As such, the company's business model is mostly dependent on drivers owning cars. The drivers, who are part of the suppliers for ehailing distribution channel, are given the upper hand (Adamkasi, 2017). Drivers can earn daily income with flexible working hours as well as freedom to decide when, where and how often they want to drive (Grab, 2021).

 Moreover, it is also tough to ensure loyalty of individual drivers as they are given the freedom to choose and switch between the organisations and rivals. Leading the market is Grab, who first appeared in the market in 2012. Grab was founded in Malaysia and currently having their headquarters in Singapore (Freischlad, 2015) starting out with MyTeksi and later rebranding to GrabCar. After several expansions to the other Southeast Asia (SEA) countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and The Philippines, Grab now dominates the SEA market with the acquisition of Uber in 2018 (Davis, 2018). Ever since the acquisition, Grab expanded their services to other areas of business with GrabPay - e-wallet providers for convenience of paying for everyday services like bills, groceries, food, rides services, prepaid reloads; GrabFood - providing food delivery service; GrabMart - an on-demand everyday goods delivery service where customers can now buy groceries, packaged food, healthcare products, beauty products, gifts, and many more via the Grab app; and their own logistic service, GrabExpress - a delivery service that helps you to send items such as documents, parcels, and gifts to your business partners, family and friends. Required: Not limited to the information from the case, you may refer to and cite any relevant journal articles, news, reports, and other information to support your answer and justifications, if needed. 

(a) (i) With reference to the relevant model, evaluate the competitive environment and threats surrounding Grab e-hailing service. 

 (ii) Assess the ways on how Grab may mitigate or counter the high threats identified in your answer.

(b) Analyse the expansion of Grab from GrabCar to several other services with reference to the Ansoff Matrix. 

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

a i With reference to the relevant model evaluate the competitive environment and threats surrounding Grab ehailing service The Porters Five Forces model can be used to evaluate the competitive enviro... View the full answer