Gojek names new Vietnam GM; unifies regional branding

INDONESIAN ride-hailing player Gojek has appointed Duc Phung, the chief operating officer of its Vietnamese business, as the new general manager (GM) for the market, the company announced on Friday. 

Separately, the firm is also streamlining its brands in Vietnam and Thailand, called GoViet and GET respectively, into the single "Gojek" branding already used in Singapore and Indonesia. 

Mr Duc will take over the role from Andrew Lee, Gojek's international group head, who had been serving as the interim GM for Vietnam after the departure of the previous GM, Christy Le Trang, in September last year. 

Gojek's Vietnam unit has seen some churn in leadership. Ms Le, who was previously Vietnam's country director for Facebook, was appointed in April last year but left after about five months on the job. Prior to her, GoViet chief executive Duc Nguyen had stepped down in March along with chief growth officer Linh Nguyen. Their departures were due to operational disputes, DealStreetAsia reported previously. 

Vietnam was the first foreign market that Gojek had expanded to, as part of its goal to grow the proportion of its users outside of Indonesia to 50 per cent. At present, about a fifth of Gojek's users are based outside of Indonesia. 

Besides the leadership change in Vietnam, the company's shift away from a market-specific branding comes as it continues to expand outside of its home market, even amid challenging conditions. 

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In its statement on Friday, Gojek said that with the rebranding of GET and GoViet, consumers will be able to use the same Gojek app across Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Mr Lee said that the brand unification will accelerate its growth in South-east Asia. 

"Unifying our apps and brands will optimise our business to deliver a better experience for everyone on our platform, today, and for years to come. Our teams at GET and GoViet have achieved exponential growth in their markets, established thriving ecosystems of users and created significant social impact," he said. 

Gojek kickstarted its international expansion in 2018, with its entry into Vietnam in August 2018, Singapore in November 2018 and Thailand in February 2019. It has also acquired a fintech startup, Coins.ph, in January 2019.