New ride-hailing service starts in Bangkok

A private car offering the Tada ride-hailing service.
A private car offering the Tada ride-hailing service.

Thailand's ride-hailing market is expected to intensify with the debut of Singapore-based Tada on Wednesday.

The service covers Bangkok now and is will expand to Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Samut Prakan in the near future.

Thailand is the company's fourth market. Tada also plans to set up an e-bike production facility in Thailand by year-end.

Grab is the dominant player in Thailand's ride-hailing market. The other players are Lineman, Robinhood and Estonia-based Bolt.

After becoming the second-largest ride-hailing platform in terms of trips in Singapore, Tada expanded to Cambodia and Vietnam.

Tada aims to transform the industry from being based on commission fees to a more sustainable model for drivers and passengers, ensuring the platform is cash-positive, Tada said.

In Singapore, ride-hailing service has penetrated 70% of the population.

In Bangkok, the penetration rate slightly exceeds one-third of the population.

Tada is one of five ride-hailing platforms licensed by the Singapore Land Transport Authority over the past five years. It secured a ride-hailing licence from Thailand's Department of Land Transportation earlier this year.

Since its beta service launch in December 2023 in Thailand, the company has had 15,000 riders, both in taxis and private cars.

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Vocabulary

  • beta (noun): beta test; a test on a new product, done by somebody who does not work for the company that is developing the product - การทดสอบก่อนที่จะนำออกขายในตลาด
  • commission: an amount of money that is paid to somebody for selling goods and which increases with the amount of goods that are sold - ค่านายหน้า, ค่าคอมมิชชั่น
  • dominant: more powerful or important than all others - เหนือกว่า
  • hail: to signal to a taxi or a bus, in order to get the driver to stop - เรียก
  • licence: an official document that gives someone permission to do or use something - ใบอนุญาต
  • penetrate: to go into or through something - แทรกซึมเข้าไป, ผ่านเข้าไป, ทะลุเข้าไป
  • penetration: the level at which a product, service, etc. has succeeded in entering a market - ส่วนแบ่ง
  • platform (noun): the type of computer system or the software that is used; a technology -
  • sustainable: able to be successfully continued for a long time - ยั่งยืน, ถาวร
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