Y2S1 Design Computing - UX Studio (Service Analysis)

Grab is a super-app that provides ride-hailing,

food delivery, grocery delivery and payment services.

In 2019, it was valued at US$14 billion, surpassing the US$10 million mark to become a decacorn.

It is currently expanding its potential as a super-app by launching Grab Financial Group, which aims to give individuals access to basic banking and financial services.

GrabFood refers specifically to Grab’s food delivery service. GrabFood is a platform that connects merchants to consumers, while hiring third-party service providers (on an independent contractor and commission basis) to deliver the food.

This flowchart depicts the Grabfood service. It charts the process of food delivery - from when the customer orders the food, to when the food is delivered to his/her home.

Legend Digital touchpoints Physical touchpoints Problems in service journey

Riders

Merchants

Customers Intention to order food

Receives order through app

Hungry, Irritable

Excited, Responsible

!

Browse through options

Happy, Anticipation

3

Prepares and complete order

Excited, Engaged

Receives notification to deliver food

Accomplished

Riders arrive on site to wait for orders

Happy, Anticipation Annoyed, Impatient

Add choices to basket

!

Choices in basket on app

5

Excited, Engaged Length of arrows shows span of time Transition from digital to physical touchpoint

!

Users pay full amount

1 Calculate amount to pay

Happy, Anticipation Annoyed, Impatient

!

2

Confirmed order

Package food

Relief, Accomplished

Picked up by delivery personnel

Excited, Responsible

User receives food delivered

Happy, Satisfied Annoyed, Relief

!

Money paid by user is distributed

!

Pain points of users, Explained

! !

2 Long waiting time due to inefficiency of the service system

!

6

Merchants

Customers 1 High price: Service Fee + Delivery Fee + Marked up price by merchants

4

Uncontactable customer service and headquarters - unresponsive to merchants and riders during times of need.

Riders

!

3 Lack of communication: Unable to signal their overwhelming demand and stop requests

!

5 Inefficiency in the system: Long waiting time, misallocation of orders, wasted trips, problems with app and algorithm

!

4 Receiving little profit from food delivery: Grab gives only 70% of total amount to merchants

!

6 Unjust schemes and commissions: Grab’s strict GEMS commission scheme, AC/CR policy and no-compensation approach

Appendix More information on Grab Grab was founded in Malaysia by Anthony Tan and Hooi Ling Tan in 2012. In 2019, it was valued at US$14 billion, becoming the region’s first decacorn.

Coined by Bloomberg in 2015, “decacorns” are startups that have reached a valuation of at least US$10 billion in the private (unlisted) market.

Grab started out offering only ride services, but has since grown to become a superapp, which covers payments, food delivery, grocery delivery and financial and investment services.

Anthony Tan and Hooi Ling Tan both studied in Harvard Business School. When a classmate complained about how difficult it was to get a taxi in Malaysia, they started coming up with an idea that could help alleviate this issue.

The idea circled around Uber-like apps that provided ridehailing services. The pair developed on it, and pitched it at the 2011 Harvard Business Plan competition. They came in 2nd place, and was given an initial grant of US$25,000. This competition also attracted many investors to their project.

In 2012, the pair officially launched MyTeksi. Initially, it was not well received by the community in Malaysia. However, a small taxi company with only 30 taxis decided to give it a shot. With the “Network Effect”, the app became more valuable as more people used it.

With the knowledge that it required a larger pool of people to make use of its service, it launched its services and app in Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. When MyTeksi launched outside of Malaysia, its name was changed to “GrabTaxi”.

In 2014, GrabTaxi launched its services in Vietnam and Indonesia, and moved its headquarters to Singapore. In the same year, it also launched GrabCar. While GrabTaxi focused on getting taxi drivers, GrabCar allowed individuals to use their own personal cars to offer rides. As GrabTaxi started to move towards developing other services, it rebranded itself to Grab in 2016.

Today, Grab is predominantly expanding in the finance sector, aiming to better establish itself as a financial institution.

Online Ethnography (Research):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NpIYdvYw8qS9_VeFhEdvsseWJGBOzm7dNIMYy2a4CUY/edit?usp=sharing

Online ethnography was used to research on the opinion and feelings of the users of GrabFood.

The initial intent was to assess the pain points from a consumers’ perspective ONLY. However, with more in-depth research, it appeared that the pain points of merchants and riders were also evidently apparent.

Research was conducted across multiple online channels. This included formal and nationally-recognised media such as The Straits Times and Channel News Asia. Social media channels include Reddit, Facebook, Rice Media and Mothership.SG. Quotes and comments were numbered with serial numbers (“S/N”) and collated into a single Google Sheets document. They were interpreted, from perspectives of all users.

Themes were then extracted. Links were noted for reference and evidence.

Online Ethnography (Research):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NpIYdvYw8qS9_VeFhEdvsseWJGBOzm7dNIMYy2a4CUY/edit?usp=sharing Using the serial numbers (“S/N”) that were assigned to each quote on Google Sheets, screenshots of the online page were taken as secondary evidence.

S/N: 1

S/N: 2

S/N: 3

S/N: 4

S/N: 5

S/N: 6

Online Ethnography (Research):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NpIYdvYw8qS9_VeFhEdvsseWJGBOzm7dNIMYy2a4CUY/edit?usp=sharing

S/N: 7a

S/N: 7b

S/N: 7c

S/N: 8

S/N: 9a

S/N: 9b

Online Ethnography (Research):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NpIYdvYw8qS9_VeFhEdvsseWJGBOzm7dNIMYy2a4CUY/edit?usp=sharing

S/N: 9c

S/N: 9d

S/N: 10

S/N: 11

S/N: 12

S/N: 13

Observation (First-Hand Experience) (Research):

After conducting research online, I was curious to find out for myself how much more food delivery is charged to a regular consumer.

The goal: order a single vegetable bun from a nearby food stall.

Distance to food stall: ~2.9km Order: $1 Vegetable Bun Final fee: $15.80(!)

Percentage mark-up: 1580%

Thematic Analysis (Mind Map format) (Interpretation): https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lPkTAZI=/

Thematic Analysis and Mind Mapping were used to further understand the data.

Using the data extracted from online ethnography, the “pain points (i.e. problems)” and relationships between stakeholders can be better represented on Miro. On the same board, the feelings of the stakeholders were also charted, so as to better understand how they could possibly affect one another (or not).

The aim of this Miro is to add in more detail and expand on each pain point of every stakeholder.

Legend Pain Points Reasons behind problems Consequence of problems Feelings of stakeholders

Customers This segment shows the range of Grab services for the different stakeholders.

Transport GrabFood GrabMart GrabExpress GrabPay GrabRewards Subscriptions GrabGifts GrabInsure GrabInvest Entertainment

Enterprise Grab for Business GrabAds GrabGifts GrabFinance Business Delivery Service

Merchants GrabPay GrabFood GrabFinance PayLater

Riders Transport GrabFood GrabExpress GrabFinance GrabInsure Driver Centre GrabAcademy

References Brand Origins. (2020, July 13). History of Grab (And How it Beat UBER in Southeast Asia). www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbZWQoMKYFk&t=344s Chua, D. (n.d.). Facebook. www.facebook.com. Retrieved March 15, 2021, from https://www.facebook.com/desmondchua/media_set?set=a.10156787927252027&type=3 Chua, N. (2020, April 16). Grab allegedly pocketed 50% of the cost of a food order made over GrabFood. What happened here? Mothership.sg. https://mothership.sg/2020/04/grabfoodcommission-rate-e xplained/ Freischlad, N. (2019). Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia’s startup ecosystem. Techinasia.com. https://www.techinasia.com/3-years-4-funding-rounds-grabtaxis-anthony-tan-reflects-journey How, M. (2020, April 22). Man, 38, arrested for public nuisance after quarrel at Playmade Waterway Point. Mothership.sg. https://mothership.sg/2020/04/playmade-waterway-point-circuitbreaker/ Lee, J. (2020, May 23). S’pore customer shows up to 61% price difference between GrabFood order & takeaway. Mothership.sg. https://mothership.sg/2020/05/online-order-food-moreexpensive/#:~:text=Markups%20in%20pricing%20on%20the Ng, T. (2020, April 24). Is Food Delivery in Singapore Too Cheap? RICE. https://www.ricemedia.co/current-affairs-features-food-delivery-singapore-too-cheap/ Ong, T. (2020, November 12). Local comedian Suhaimi Yusof baffled after his GrabFood delivery missing but order status is “delivered.” Mothership.sg. https://mothership.sg/2020/11/suhaimiyusof-old-chang-kee-order/ Reddit Thread. (2020a). r/singapore - A GrabFood rider’s perspective on how Grab overwhelmed LiHo with orders yesterday, but became uncontactable throughout the rush. Reddit. https:// www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/g60rs4/a_grabfood_riders_perspective_on_how_grab/ Reddit Thread. (2020b). r/singapore - A rant on Grabfood. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/fvgcu3/a_rant_on_grabfood/ Reddit Thread. (2020c). r/singapore - GrabFood Delivery fees $7.50? Did price increase? Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/fw1y4w/grabfood_delivery_fees_750_did_price_ increase/ Reddit Thread. (2021). r/singapore - This insane route suggested by grab for my delivery order. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/kdjaxx/this_insane_route_suggested_by_ grab_for_my/ Tan, A. (2020, June 14). Female GrabFood rider in S’pore illustrates ups & downs of her job in adorable comic. Mothership.sg. https://mothership.sg/2020/06/female-grabfood-rider-comic/ Tan, C. (2020, January 17). The Price You Pay For Convenience: 38% More Expensive Compared To In-Stores. Blog.seedly.sg. https://blog.seedly.sg/price-convenience-food-delivery-in-storesexpensive-singapore/ Zhang, J. (2020, November 17). NUS student makes video about earning S$48.70 from 10 orders as GrabFood delivery rider. Mothership.sg. https://mothership.sg/2020/11/nus-femalegrabfood-rider/

I would like to thank my family, friends, course mates, tutor (Relmi Damiano), unit coordinator (Madeleine Borthwick) and many others who have provided guidance on my journey thus far.