Grab bagged South East Asia? Uber still in the running

I see a lot of anecdotal evidence that people claim Grab has South East Asia in the bag and Uber is doomed. I beg to differ.

I take a Grab or Uber from KLIA quite a bit. I always try the Grab app first. Take yesterday (Friday night/Saturday morning). I landed at 1am and tried the Grab app twice: one for GrabCar and another for JustGrab. It found no rides.

Contrast that to Uber. Tried for UberX once and I was in a car within 5 minutes. This is generally my experience when it comes to using Uber versus Grab at the airport.

I try to speak to drivers for a bit before delving into reading on my tablet. Today my driver whom has completed 840 trips on the Uber platform in the 9 months he has been on it told me he is Uber-exclusive. He knows Grab exists but he’s all in on Uber.

Some drivers do drive for both platforms. But it is clearly not all.

So my experience so far has been that I’m doing better with Uber even though I try Grab first. And I estimate my data points from KLIA are approximately 3 rides per month.

Of course, not having to use Alm Cabs “airport limousine” is clearly the bonus here!


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