A lot of people don’t know this, but Gojek is the only true multi-modal ridehailing company in the world.

You can book all legs of the journey in a single transaction:

  • First mile (to the transit hub) using any of our ride-hailing products
  • Middle mile (train)
  • Last mile (to your final destination using one of our ride-hailing products)

Every good business should have a business equation. Here is ours:

People booking public transit × % of them booking online × % booking online through Gojek × us upselling the entire journey (all the legs) and converting only the middle mile transaction to a full journey (multi modal) transaction.

First factor is macro. You can’t control it much. Second is also macro, but you can teach users why booking online is better: simpler, cashless. You have to build a killer experience for the 3rd factor to happen: seamless integration with transit services. Last factor requires product integration. How can you make the multi-modal booking seamless? How can users just tap a button to complete the last leg? Can we track the state of the booking (all legs) at all times? Can you let them edit destinations when needed, or change trains if needed?

Over time, you integrate with more public transit options despite regulatory hurdles. This can become your moat. Commute contributes to 20+% of most ride-hailing apps, so building more flexibility in commute is important. Giving economy options is important.

You also expand your market by onboarding economy users who are used to public transit. Get them on your platform through transit ticket purchases, and later upsell them to non-commute, non-transit regular 2W rides, and then 4W.

You need to integrate all ride-hailing options over time, including premium options of relevant vehicle types and more vehicle types. This isn’t easy because you need to think through pickup and drop-off experiences offline. Bikes can have designated zones to park. More space is needed for cars, and car parking is harder.

I was thinking whether Rapido can do this in India, but the actual bottleneck is auto unions. They won’t let 2W ride-hailing kill their business even though it is far more efficient in traffic and affordable.