You might have already heard of ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft, and one of their biggest competitors is Grab which operates in Southeast Asia.

Just a few weeks ago, Grab managed to officially crossed the 1 billion ride mark. For a little comparison, Uber allegedly reached around 5 billion trips in one month of 2017 alone.

Grab first started several years ago in Malaysia and now they can be found in at least 7 different markets, with tens of millions of users, and they're offering their services in over 142 different cities.

Those cities are found in regions like Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, and elsewhere. They provide a variety of services such as private ride services, carpooling, bike/moped taxis, and they are also now a digital payments company.

Not that long ago, Grab managed to raise about $2 billion in funding and has now successfully managed to roll out its GrabPay service with some third-party merchants. They have started allowing street vendors to utilize this payment service and they've already got about 25 merchants signed up, with hopes to have at least 1,000 signed up by the end of 2017.

The hope is that in the future GrabPay will act as a cash replacement and enable customers to pay for a lot more than just their ride to where they are going. They also hope that people will be able to use the system to pay for food, hardware, and more.

Doing Things Differently...

To set themselves apart from the competition, Grab recently collaborated with Disney to promote Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The two partners sought to gamify the ride-sharing experience by allowing users to have a little Star Wars fun.

For the users who load the ride-sharing app, they can choose to either join The Resistance or The First Order.

After they choose a side, their app will be re-skinned for several weeks (see image above). Not only that, but users will also be entered for a chance to win tickets to a screening for the film, an all-inclusive trip, and more.

And Grab isn't the only ride service that's trying out creative partnerships to introduce unique campaigns. Not that long ago, Lyft also announced their Taco Bell partnership to embark on their Taco Mode adventure that allows riders to add a Taco Bell delivery option onto their purchase.

In other new partnerships for ride-sharing, Uber also just this week announced that they will be partnering with Meals on Wheels. Volunteers with Meals On Wheels will be given promotional codes that will give them access to free rides from Uber so that they can make their deliveries. At a time when user experience really plays an important role in helping businesses to set themselves apart from the competition, these sorts of unique and fun partnerships are what can really help them to distinguish themselves in the market.

Pics:
Bloomberg via dealstreetasia.com/stories/grab-ubers-seasia-rival-raise-2-5b-didi-softbank-78484/
via techcrunch
via vulcanpost.com

Sources:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/01/grab-takes-a-big-step-into-digital-payments/
https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/grab-ubers-seasia-rival-raise-2-5b-didi-softbank-78484/
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/05/uber-rival-grab-crosses-1-billion-rides-in-southeast-asia/
http://www.marketing-interactive.com/grab-gets-star-wars-fever-are-you-part-of-the-resistance-or-the-first-order/
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/uber-rival-grab-expects-to-raise-2-point-5-billion-dollars-in-new-funding-round.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-partners-with-meals-on-wheels-america-pledging-1-million-2017-11

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