Supperapp Saga of Grab
My first encounter with Grab was back in 2019 during my visit to Singapore. I used it for booking cabs and was quite impressed by its reward system i.e loyalty programme. Back to the present, I tried exploring the app in-depth.
Grab is a Singapore and Indonesia based super app — that caters to a variety of services in South East Asia. It started as a cab booking app and expanded its services to online food delivery, payment, etc. Interestingly it caters to 4 different types of users:
- Consumers
- Drivers
- Merchants
- Enterprises
I am only gonna discuss the first user group i.e consumers based in Singapore. The app interface and services available might change based on the country.
Grab super app enables users to cater following services
If we exclude Hotels, Attractions, Invest — the rest all looks like an extension of Grab’s mobility business, a similar pattern can be observed in Uber(US) and recently Swiggy. But what makes Grab stand out is its payment section- GrabPay. It is a wallet whose reach goes beyond the services offered by Grab currently.
Combined with Grab’s reward system, which is synced across all its services, creates a powerful flywheel to onboard users, increase ATV( average transaction value) per user and keep adding more services
Combined Excuse the poorly drawn flywheel, but focus on “GrabPay for payment” at the top. Not only does it supplement the current Grab services but also other services like payment at offline stores, tourist attractions, etc. The data collected by these transactions enable Grab to increase its basket of services and also enhance its current services.
Grab’s Loyalty Program is another important component that sync’s with its bundle of services. Unlike typical loyalty programs observed its a bit complex but make sure to make a case to use GrabPay.(https://www.grab.com/sg/rewards/). Grab tried to gamify this loyalty program although I would say rather unsuccessfully but did remove the adoption friction. Unlike any subscription( Amazon Prime, Zomato Gold) it gets activated the moment you onboard without any cost for users. Based on your usages like ride booking, shopping grocery, etc you get rewards which can be redeemed as discounts or other in-app offers. Overall it makes sure that loyal users are properly rewarded.
Supperapps combines distinct services into one app to offer a holistic experience — that’s my definition. Here, comes two internal frictions:
From the business side, where to expand and how to use existing capability. Secondly, why will the users use these newly added services?
Most of the companies get the first one done successfully owing to the data collected by their current services but fail in second. I would like to explain this using JTBD forces of push and pull. It is not enough just to create an equally compelling product, it also needs to be better than solving the problem compared to competitors/ alternatives. Here, the Grab loyalty program provided a strong incentive for users to adopt other services. Surely, external parameters like COVID-19 and the absence of a strong competitor did accelerate the process.
GrabPay is still far from being a major consumer fintech but surely moving towards it. We can surely see it moving towards enabling more investment options and credit lines. As for Grab’s service expansion, it recently bought a Malaysia based supermarket chain. Whether it is to enhance its grocery delivery or to step into offline commerce is yet to be seen.
Research that started as a product critique of Grab resulted in something else, well anyways it was fun.