Grab services disrupted in Singapore and other key South-east Asian markets
DIGITAL services player Grab has been hit with technical difficulties in its key South-east Asian markets, including Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, The Philippines and Malaysia, on Tuesday (Nov 16) morning.
In a statement to users, the company said some services are not accessible, and apologised for the inconvenience.
It also warned drivers on its platform that they might encounter issues with receiving and completing job orders, according to a circular seen by The Business Times.
This comes as Grab users across the region took to social media channels to report that ride-hailing and food delivery services were not working. Some ride-hailing drivers and delivery riders said their jobs were cancelled abruptly, with one adding that the disruption had taken away half the day's income.
Meanwhile, some users reported they had incurred wrongful ride-hailing charges, such as one user who said that she was charged a late fee of over S$50 even though she had already reached her destination. Grab has responded to such comments and asked users to send over their booking ID and contact details.
Its core services have been restored since late morning, although some people have still reported intermittent issues, Grab told BT in an updated statement on Tuesday evening. It added that the company is working hard to address these issues and no customer data has been breached during the outage. "We apologise to all affected users for the inconvenience," it said.
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Grab operates ride hailing, food delivery and digital financial services across 8 countries in South-east Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam, reaching over 670 million people in the region.
The Singapore-based company, which is in the midst of closing its US$39.6 billion merger with Nasdaq-listed Altimeter Growth Corp, last week posted its last set of financial results before its expected listing. Grab sank deeper into the red and its revenue slipped as the pandemic weighed on its ride hailing business.
Grab assured the public that it is still on track to complete its merger - one of the largest-ever with a SPAC - this quarter, following a delay caused by a review of its financials.
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