Uber's Southeast Asian rival Grab reaches 1bn rides milestone

Uber's arch-rival in Southeast Asia, Grab recently completed one billion rides in the region since its launch five years ago.

Grab said that it hit the milestone on October 26 when 66 concurrent trips from across all seven countries that it operates in Southeast Asia took it into ten-figure territory.

The ride-hailing service debuted Malaysia in 2012, and today it covers 142 cities across seven nations namely Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Myanmar with over 2 million driver-partners . Its initial service was booking licensed taxis, but it has since expanded to cover Uber-style private hire, carpooling, motorbike taxis and more.

With SoftBank and Didi as its marquee investors, Grab is valued at $6 billion, which makes it Southeast Asia’s highest valued tech company.

Though Uber still holds significant market across the globe, its rivals are making rapid strides. While Didi (no longer a competitor though) is already in the billion-ride club, Lyft, the second largest cab-aggregator in the US, hit 500 million trips this past summer and is growing at one million per day.