Indonesian ride-sharing company Go-Jek launched the Get app in Thailand yesterday to compete with Grab, the de facto monopolist in the market.
Get's food and parcel delivery service also adds another player to the crowded online food delivery market, currently dominated by Line Man.
Get is a separate Thai company from Go-Jek but is fully funded by its Indonesian parent, which has an undisclosed stake in Get.
Get is part of Go-Jek's expansion in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and Singapore, as well as the Philippines, where the group acquired a payment service.
"Go-Jek told us to take its tech, funding and model, take it all, but make sure it is relevant to the area and it has a positive impact in Thailand," said Pinya Nittayakasetwat, co-founder and chief executive of Get.
After a two-month beta testing phase, Get has totalled 2 million transactions. The service is only available in Bangkok, but there are plans to expand coverage to the surrounding metropolitan area.
Mr Pinya said penetration for ride-hailing apps is still in the single digits, with 65% of Thais saying they have never used a food delivery app.
He termed the market a "blue ocean" with lots of room to grow, where new competition will only help expand the market.
"Competition is heating up in Thailand, but it's still not enough to get some people to download and use an app to get food or for a ride," Mr Pinya said. "Get will need a lot of localisation to be a successful platform."
While Grab appears to be Get's biggest rival, old-fashioned taxis and delivery methods may be a more immediate challenge.
"Our main competition is the old way of doing things, the inefficient way of doing things," said Nadiem Makarim, co-founder and chief executive of Go-Jek. "As in Indonesia, the main competition for our payment service is cash."
The app also offers car-sharing, while the Get Win app is a service that uses licensed motorbike taxi drivers for Get Food and Get Delivery. According to Mr Pinya, the company will soon launch Get Pay, an e-payment service.
Get plans to compete with other "super apps" like Grab and Line, hoping to become an app people use for multiple services, multiple times a day.
"We have designed a super app," Mr Makarim said. "We have drivers using 4-5 services a day, and once you get customers to start using around three services a day, you have them for life."
When asked about how the company will compete with Grab, Mr Makarim said the most powerful motivator for people to use the service is simply to have more options.
"When you have experienced players come into a low penetration market, you can grow the market," he said. "Thailand is still in the nascent stages for a lot of these services."
Like many new tech companies, Get and Go-Jek tout their social impact and benefit to society. Their marketing push and expansion efforts are centred on offering a way to create jobs and provide a more equitable relationship with drivers.
By using only licensed "orange jacket" motorbike drivers, the company sets itself apart from Grab, whose drivers are technically skirting laws that prohibit unlicensed drivers from taking fares.
"We are not some big, scary corporation that exploits our workers," Mr Makarim said. "One of our main competitive advantages is that we care about nation building and creating jobs. We created the most jobs in the history of Indonesia."