(Sept 4): Ride-hailing provider GoTo Group is exiting Vietnam, abandoning a country where it’s been struggling to focus on reaching profitability in its main operations in Indonesia and Singapore.

The company’s Gojek brand will close its Vietnam business effective Sept 16, GoTo said Wednesday in a statement. The unit, which offers ride-hailing, food delivery and courier services, accounted for less than 1% of GoTo’s gross transactions in the second quarter and the exit won’t hurt the company’s financials, it said.

The unprofitable company, which battles stiff competition from Singapore’s Grab Holdings Ltd in markets including Vietnam, has slashed spending as user growth cools. It exited Thailand in 2021 and late last year relinquished control of loss-making e-commerce arm Tokopedia to ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok in a US$1.5 billion (RM6.5 billion) deal.

Still, GoTo has yet to reach positive net income, despite thousands of job cuts and large reductions in marketing expenditure. Since Patrick Walujo took over as chief executive last year, the company has moved closer to profitability — yet its shares remain down more than 80% since its 2022 initial public offering.

The company reiterated Wednesday it expects to reach positive adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the full year.

While the TikTok deal and the cost cuts have eased pressure on GoTo’s finances, the difficult market has prompted the company and its competitors to consider aggressive options. GoTo and Grab this year revived discussions about a merger of their core businesses, Bloomberg News reported, a union that could allow them to reduce spending to attract users.

Besides market leader Grab, Vietnam’s ride-hailing contenders include local player Be Group. The upstart raised about US$30 million this year to accelerate its growth in markets from ride-hailing to deliveries.

Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja