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Singapore’s Grab beat Wall Street expectations for first-quarter revenue on Tuesday (May 5), benefiting from resilient demand for its ride-hailing and food-delivery services after rolling out promotional offers and bundled features to attract customers.<\/p>\n
Southeast Asia’s biggest ride-hailing and delivery firm has been trying to boost spending on its platform by incorporating artificial-intelligence features into its superapp and bundling its core ride-hailing, delivery and financial services.<\/p>\n
With oil and gas prices soaring due to the war in the Middle East, the company has also promoted more affordable offerings, including a “saver” option, to woo customers grappling with higher costs of living.<\/p>\n
About 35 per cent of its users are on the “saver” program, opting for cheaper deliveries, CFO Peter Oey told Reuters.<\/p>\n
“It is a very good balance between the price-sensitive customers and for those who are less price-sensitive. That gives us the levers also to continue to make sure that our margin for our delivery business continues to improve,” he said.<\/p>\n
Grab’s quarterly revenue rose 24 per cent from a year earlier to US$955 million, compared with analysts’ estimates of US$921.1 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.<\/p>\n
Deliveries revenue increased 23 per cent to US$510 million, while mobility revenue was up 19 per cent at US$337 million.<\/p>\n
Shares of the company were up 1.6 per cent in extended trading.<\/p>\n
On-demand gross merchandise value rose 24 per cent to US$6.1 billion, as growth in both mobility and deliveries accelerated despite seasonal softness typically associated with regional festive periods.<\/p>\n
Profit came in at US$120 million, compared with US$10 million a year earlier.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n