VietNamNet Bridge – Mobile app developers have launched a series of products for taxi services. However, they have not been welcomed in the Vietnamese market.

Rocket Internet, which is listed as a major player in Vietnam, has launched another app into the market, EasyTaxi. The app allows users to find taxis with smart phones, with no need to call the operators or wait for taxis on the street.

Having established itself in 150 cities in 23 countries, and available in 11 languages, EasyTaxi is believed by many to be poised to quickly become popular in Vietnam among taxi drivers and clients.

With EasyTaxi, users need only to enter their itineraries and intended destinations, while the app responds by displaying the estimated fare and automatically contacting taxi drivers.

Once the connections succeed, users are informed about the taxi drivers and the car models. A history of the trips and data about the taxi drivers is also recorded by EasyTaxi.

“It would be easy to call for taxi in HCM City.  However, this may be quite different in other localities,” commented Nguyen Tuan Anh, Managing Director of GrabTaxi Vietnam, a rival of EasyTaxi.

Operating in a similar mode, GrabTaxi, which is prevailing in Malaysia, has been marketed in Vietnam. Developed to serve the Malaysian taxi market two years ago, GrabTaxi is now used by 1/3 of the taxi drivers in the country.

However, despite the great advantages promised by the app developers, the products have not been well-received in Vietnam.

One of the reasons GrabTaxi quickly gained favor in Malaysia is the country’s complicated taxi market, where taxi service providers are numerous and hard to control. Given those conditions, GrabTaxi can help customers avoid problems.

At the same time, taxi drivers joining the GrabTaxi network have found that it provides opportunities to increase their income by 300 percent. They can cut down expenses on fuel because they don’t have to roam around looking for fares, while they can serve more passengers because they can so easily be contacted by them.

Things are quite different in Vietnam, however.

Both EasyTaxi and GrabTaxi are foregoing the charging of service fees in this first phase of operation, as they try to expand their markets and encourage people to use their apps.

Meanwhile, analysts have warned that the service providers would fail to collect fees on successful connections like EasyTaxi is doing in Thailand or GrabTaxi in Malaysia.  

In reply, Tuan Anh said GrabTaxi may not charge fees on users. In the future, when the market expands, GrabTaxi may start to collect fees from taxi drivers, who would have to pay either periodically for membership in the system, or pay for each taxi service.

It is highly possible that EasyTaxi would also charge taxi drivers.

However, analysts said, this would be the obstacle to the system’s expansion, especially when the number of taxi drivers using smart phones remains modest.

In mid-2013, Rocket Internet invested $15 million to implement the plan to “conquer” the Asian market with EasyTaxi. Meanwhile, GrabTaxi has set a target of persuading 1/3 of the taxi drivers in Vietnam to become users of the app by the end of 2014.

NCDT