Taxi-hailing apps had a good ride in Vietnam last year
Mobile applications for cab hailing services such as GrabTaxi and Uber have been named Vietnam's biggest consumer hit last year by the Nikkei.
The ranking, part of the Japanese newspaper's annual list of Asia's biggest consumer successes, was based on its resident reporters' interviews and reports, its English publication Nikkei Asian Review has said.
 |
Taxi-hailing apps became trendy in Vietnam following the arrival of the US-based service Uber in 2014, it said. Soon after that the Malaysia-based startup GrabTaxi entered the country, where taxis are so prevalent that they have been more than once blamed for worsening traffic congestion.
Riding on the popularity of smartphones, the services quickly became popular here. It forced many local taxi companies such as Vinasun to launch their own apps. Even the transport ministry planned to create its own Uber-like service.
Appota Corp. in March last year reported that the country had 22 million smartphone users.