Grab reinforces 'Super App' positioning with 4 new services

Grab has launched hotel booking, video streaming, ticket purchasing and trip planning services on its app, in a bid to serve more of Singaporeans’ everyday needs, with added value and convenience. The four new services will be progressively rolled out in Singapore and be available to all users by June 2019. These new services come shortly after Grab's integration of GrabFood into the main app last week. This is in line with Grab's aim to be Southeast Asia’s "everyday super app" offering users a "frictionless experience" with one platform offering. With the new hotels booking service, Grab users can book hotels and other accommodation from Agoda, and soon, Booking.com directly from the Grab app. Users can access and compare prices across the selection of places to stay, ranging from luxury and budget hotels to apartments, vacation homes and family-run B&Bs. Grab has started to roll out the "Hotels" tab to select Grab users in Singapore, which will be available to all users in May. This comes following data accumulated by Grab, that said Singapore residents are the "most well-travelled" in Southeast Asia. According to Grab, its users will get free travel personal accident, flight delay insurance with each hotel booking, special ride offers, payments through GrabPay and earn GrabRewards points with every transaction later this year. Tapping on its earlier partnership with HOOQ, Grab will be offering online video content on its app. Grab users in Singapore will be able to access on-demand streaming of Hollywood blockbusters, regional favourites, and free-to-air content directly through the app. Meanwhile, the new ticket purchasing service is done through a partnership with Asia's entertainment ticketing platform, BookMyShow. This is in a bid to give users "faster and simpler" way to buy movie tickets and in the future, tickets to other events online. Grab said upon its launch, users in Singapore will be able to search, compare, and purchase tickets from some of the leading cinema chains in the country including Cathay Cineplexes and Carnival. Starting today, the trip planner feature will be made available to all Grab users, enabling users to plan their transit journey with real-time public transportation information and end-to-end directions in the app. Users will also receive directions or recommendations of first-mile-last-mile transportation options such as GrabShare or GrabTaxi to and from the public transit. This comes following the launch of GrabPlatform to "supercharge" its partnerships strategy. Jerald Singh, group head of product and design, Grab, said the GrabPlatform will enable the team to expand into new verticals, while empowering its partners to scale their business with Grab's reach and assets. GrabPlatform gives partners access to components of Grab’s technology including transport, logistics, payments, user authentication, messaging, insights and mapping. As such, partners can either integrate Grab into their services or integrate their services into Grab. Grab aims to allow partners to expand their reach by bringing in services and also provide on-demand rides to their clients. Singh said a day with Grab can now be "seamless", from planning the commute to work to ordering the next meal and getting ready for a movie date or holiday trip. He added that paying with GrabPay and earning GrabRewards points can be used for more discounts or vouchers on other transactions. "We are the app serving Southeast Asia and Singapore’s everyday needs, and we look forward to introducing even more services throughout the rest of the year," he said.