Singapore remains key to Gojek's plans, says its GM

WHEN asked to describe Gojek's journey so far, words and phrases like "tumultuous" and "resilient partnerships" spill forth from Lien Choong Luen, general manager of Gojek Singapore.

"We're a platform and we're ultimately dependent on the goodwill of the driver partners and customers. That's what the past 3 years have been about," he said.

Gojek entered the Singapore ride-hailing market in November 2018, its first venture outside of Indonesia. At the time, it faced an incumbent Grab that had just merged with rival Uber's South-east Asia operations. Between then and now, Gojek has trucked through the Covid-19 pandemic, merged with e-commerce player Tokopedia, and gone public with parent GoTo on the Indonesia Stock Exchange on Apr 11.