PETALING JAYA, March 29 — Grab’s acquisition of Uber’s South-east Asian operations on Monday will not affect current fare rates, according to Grab Malaysia’s country head Sean Goh.
“If we just increase prices, it will damage the demand from consumers though it may be good for our drivers,” he said at a dialogue session with the media at its headquarters in Petaling Jaya today.
“If the regulation for the e-hailing industry kicks in and it substantially increases costs, we may have to adjust prices upwards to be fair to our drivers,” he said.
Goh said the merger would be beneficial for Uber and Grab as both companies can lean on each other’s respective strengths, and improve on their weaknesses.
“There is a traditional view that competition is always good for the consumer, and it’s true because competition will drive innovation.
“With this combination, we saw the opportunity to bring both sides of innovation and learn from each other in terms of technology and operation,” he said.
In addition, he said the company will not expect an immediate change in terms of operating system and will continue to use its in-house technology upon completion of the merger.
The Uber app in the region will be terminated on April 8 this year, while Uber Eats will run until the end of May this year before moving to the GrabFood platform.
