Grab (formerly known as MyTeksi in Malaysia), the leading ride-hailing platform in Southeast Asia, is now available for the first time outside of the region. Grab users who are travelling to the U.S. from Southeast Asia can book rides in over 200 U.S. cities from today, with the Lyft integration in the Grab app now complete. This is part of Grab’s commitment to provide solutions that make the Grab app a seamless experience, whether in cross-border travel, payments or new services.
The Grab and Lyft two-way integration will go live in the coming weeks, enabling users in Southeast Asia (SEA) and the U.S. to book rides through their native apps when they travel. This is the first two-way integration to go live in the global rideshare agreement between Didi Chuxing, Grab, Lyft and Ola announced in December 2015 – a partnership that reaches nearly 50 per cent of the world’s population, including the millions of international travellers across China, Southeast Asia, the U.S. and India yearly.
Today, one in nine smartphone users in SEA are Grab users, with access to the largest land transport fleet in the region including taxis, private cars and motorbike services. The Grab-Lyft integration enables Grab’s users to additionally access leading ridesharing services in over 200 U.S. cities where Lyft operates.
The Grab-Lyft integration will also provide Lyft users with convenient access to rideshare services in 30 cities across six countries in SEA, a region which continues to attract an increasing number of international travellers from the U.S. and around the world. In 2015, SEA’s international arrivals totalled 106 million, and this number is expected to increase to nearly 200 million travellers over the next 10 years. American tourists are among the top travel spenders in the Asia Pacific region and will continue to be in the foreseeable future, spending US$231.6 billion in 2015.
“Grab has always put the freedom of choice, flexibility and convenience in the hands of our customers, including providing a seamless travel experience across borders, as we seek to outserve our users,” said Tan Hooi Ling, Co-Founder of Grab. “Southeast Asia is a huge growth market for international visitors and we welcome our American friends and travellers from the U.S. to experience ride-hailing via taxis and cars in our region. This partnership with Lyft is another step to enable seamless international travel, and it combines the strength and reach of our companies to cross-share learnings and leverage the best services in each local market for the benefit of our users.”
“As more and more people travel to and from the U.S. and Southeast Asia, our work with Grab gives travellers peace of mind when abroad. It’s as easy as opening up the app you already know and love, requesting a ride and jetting off to where you need to be,” said Kristina Gibson, head of international product for Lyft. “Our goal is to provide passengers with a seamless experience.”
The roaming integration, which is part of a broader global partnership, enables international travellers to access local on-demand rides, without worry of local currency, language, downloading a new app or setting up new payment accounts. Grab users traveling in the U.S. will be able to book Lyft and Lyft Plus rides through the Grab app, and a Lyft user traveling in SEA will be able to book GrabCar and Taxi rides through the Lyft app (in cities where available). All rides are cashless and transacted via credit card or alternative payment options such as PayPal wallet, enabling for a seamless ride experience.
The Lyft integration in the Grab app is now available and Grab users can book Lyft rides in the U.S. using the Grab app from today. The Grab integration in the Lyft app will be available in the coming weeks.
