Survey Shows Most Consumers Think Grab-Uber Merger Should Be Reviewed Or Rejected
Grab's acquisition of Uber's Southeast Asia operations was announced last Monday, 26 March.
By Justin Tan — 02 Apr 2018, 02:03 PM
According to a recent survey, majority of Singaporeans believe that the Grab-Uber deal should be reconsidered or dropped
According to TODAYonline, an online survey was carried out between 14 to 23 March by independent research consultancy Blackbox Research, involving a representative sample of 1,000 Singaporeans aged 15 and above.
This comes after Grab announced last Monday, 26 March that it has acquired Uber's operations and assets, including the latter's food delivery business, across eight regional markets - Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
As part of the deal, Uber will receive a 27.5% stake in Grab and its chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi will join the board of the Singapore-based company.
The survey found that more than 53% of the respondents want the merger to be reviewed, with 19% think that it should be rejected. On the contrary, 13% sees no issue with the merger while the remaining said they are unsure.
Interestingly, the majority (55%) said that the Grab acquisition of Uber will not affect them as consumers, while 26% believed that it will be "good" / "very good" for them. The remaining 19% felt that it will be "bad" / "very bad".
The survey found that 54% of Singaporeans aged between 25 and 34 years old use Grab or Uber at least once a week. It is worth noting that this age group is most likely to feel that the Grab-Uber deal will have a negative impact towards them as users.
Meanwhile, according to Minister in Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri, Grab has promised that the company will not increase its fares
As reported by The Edge Markets, during Dewan Rakyat Minister's oral answer session today, Nancy said she received such guarantee from the ride-sharing company prior to the takeover announcement while responding to Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar's query on Grab monopoly concern.
Nancy said, "I have had a discussion with Grab on March 26 to hear from them. They have guaranteed to us that there will not be any form of price hike or unfair pricing. If pricing discrimination happens, they have been informed that we will take legal action under the Malaysia Competition Act 2010.
"The government will monitor the market so that the e-hailing industry will not be negatively affected by monopoly because this is part of the effort to encourage existing taxi drivers to convert into the e-hailing system."