Why is Singapore’s Grab different from ride-hailing giants Uber, Lyft and Didi?

The region’s population is more than 670 million people, of which six out of 10 are unbanked or underbanked.

Digital services are still nascent in much of the region, with penetration rates for online food delivery services about half of what they were in China last year. Ride-hailing is even less common, at about 3 per cent of the market in Southeast Asia versus 15 per cent in China.

Online food delivery is expected to grow from about US$11 billion in Southeast Asia today to about US$21 billion by 2025 and consumer expenditures for ride-hailing are expected to more than triple to about US$16 billion.

Even as vaccines are rolled out, and lockdowns loosen in cities such as Singapore, $Grab Holdings (GRAB.US)$ sees the shift to digital services sticking. In Jakarta, where the traffic jams are infamous, food delivery volumes continue to grow as consumers save time by staying at home.