Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Grab’s efforts to move away from its “burn money” strategy are starting to bear fruit. Grab’s revenue tripled by the end of 2022. However, this effort was achieved at the expense of rapid growth.
Grab recorded US$ 1.43 billion in revenue in 2022, more than doubling compared to US$ 675 million in 2021.
This increase in revenue helped Grab cut its losses (EBITDA) from US$3.56 billion (Rp 54.38 trillion) in 2021 to US$ 1.74 billion in 2022 (Rp 26.58 trillion).
In order to achieve these results, Grab had to sacrifice the company’s rapid growth. The total transaction value on the Grab platform grew 24% throughout 2022, much lower than the 56% growth in 2021.
According to Bloomberg, growth in 2022 is only half of Grab’s average GMV growth during 2018-2021 of 41%.
According to the latest ‘Earning Call’ report, the incentives provided by Grab to its partners have decreased by 20%, from US$218 million (IDR 3.3 trillion) to US$174 million (IDR 2.6 trillion) year-on-year (YoY). The incentive value earns 3% of the total transactions (GMV) on the platform.
Not only that, incentives for customers also fell by 35% YoY, from USD $ 365 million (Rp 5.5 trillion) to US $ 238 million (Rp 3.6 trillion) during the last three months of 2022. This value is 5% of GMV, summarized Monday (27/2/2023).
The result is a loss decacorn the Singapore origin fell by 64% YoY, from US$1.1 billion (Rp.16.8 trillion) to US$391 million (Rp.5.9 trillion).
According to reports, Grab’s revenue has actually increased sharply from US$122 million to US$502 million or 346% YoY, even though it is no longer burning cash. GMV on the platform also rose 20% compared to Q4 2022, namely to US$4.997 billion (Rp.74.8 trillion).
The number of users who made transactions monthly (MTU) also increased by 14% from 29.6 million in Q4 2021 to 33.6 million in the last quarter of 2022. However, transactions per MTU fell slightly by 6% YoY, from US$152 million (Rp 2.3 trillion) to US$149 million (Rp 2.2 trillion).
Grab focuses on profit in 2024
Grab’s move to reduce the portion of burning money seems to have only been stepped up in Q4 2022. If you look at it throughout the year over a 12-month period, the incentives provided by Grab to partners and customers are still higher than in 2021.
Incentives for partners will increase by 12% in 2022 compared to 2021 to US$801 million (Rp 12.2 trillion). Likewise with incentives for customers who rose 10% in total to US $ 1.169 billion (Rp. 17.8 trillion).
Nevertheless, Grab’s total losses in 2022 will still decrease by 51%, from US$3.555 billion (Rp. 54.3 trillion) to US$1.740 billion (Rp. 26.5 trillion). Total revenue also rose 125% to US $ 1.433 billion or the equivalent of Rp. 21.8 trillion).
Throughout the year, Grab also increased commissions for delivery services, including GrabFood and GrabExpress, by 3%. From the previous 18.2% to 21.4%. However, commissions for transportation (mobility) services fell 0.1%, from 23.4% to 23.3%.
Moments ago, Grab CEO Anthony Tan announced that the company’s future target is to focus on pocketing profits. Quoted from Bloomberg, Anthony is targeting the company to be profitable in 2024.
In the newly released Earning Calls, one of Grab’s efforts to boost its business is to increase the productivity of its driver-partners. Compared to 2021, driver waiting times are reduced by 27%.
This has an impact on increasing driver income by 13%, as well as maintaining a customer retention rate of up to 87%. As many as 74% of Grab’s driver partners are also multitasking, namely accommodating food delivery services and passenger pick-ups.
(fab)
