Gojek’s ambitious expansion into Vietnam in 2018 had significant potential and made a remarkable start.
However, the venture ultimately failed due to several factors, including its inability to retain its leadership team, to establish a sustainable ecosystem independent of subsidies, and to expand its product offerings at a pace comparable to emerging competitors, according to a recent analysis by Runway Ventures, a weekly newsletter that examines startup failures.
The report, released in July 2026, explores GoViet’s six-year journey, which later transformed into Gojek Vietnam. It examines the company’s initial rapid growth, its subsequent failure, and its decision to exit Vietnam after incurring significant losses of US$217 million and experiencing the turnover of four CEOs.
A spectacular growth
GoViet was founded in August 2018 as the Vietnamese arm of Indonesian decacorn Gojek, a super-app running motorbike ride-hailing, food delivery, and courier services. The company sought to compete against Singapore’s Grab’s near-monopoly in Vietnam, offering a platform tailored for the local market featuring local branding, and a local team, while also adhering to Gojek’s regional strategy.
GoViet’s expansion into Vietnam was significant as it marked Gojek’s first international expansion country outside Indonesia. It was part of a broader US$500 million expansion plan to expand across Southeast Asia, which also included Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines.
In Vietnam, GoViet made its debut in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) with initial services such as GoBike, a motorcycle taxi service, and GoSend, a delivery service. The launch was accompanied by a grand promotion campaign offering rides for only VND 5,000 (US$0.22) for eight kilometers and charging no commission for drivers.
The aggressive subsidies proved effective, and within six weeks of its launch, GoViet had amassed 1.5 million app downloads and 25,000 onboarded drivers, securing a 35% market share of the two-wheeler ride-hailing segment in HCMC, reported Vietnam Net Global.
In November 2018, the company added GoFood, an online food delivery service. The service quickly gained traction, onboarding of 70,000 merchants, offering an impressive 1 million menu items and consistently reporting a monthly growth rate of 25%-35% in the number of orders by August 2019. It ultimately became Vietnam’s leading food delivery service, GoViet claimed.
Simultaneously, GoViet’s ride-hailing service had hit 100 million trips across HCMC and Hanoi, a number which the company managed to double a year later. By mid-2020, the company, which had rebranded to GoJek Vietnam, served millions of customers in Hanoi and HCMC, and boasted more than 150,000 driver-partners and 80,000 merchants, Vietnam News reported.
Trouble arises
But underneath the growth, GoJek Vietnam faced challenges in maintaining its leadership team. In March 2019, Founding CEO Nguyễn Vũ Đức and Deputy CEO Nguyễn Bảo Linh resigned, becoming instead advisors to the company.
Lê Diệp Kiều Trang, a former Facebook Vietnam Country Director, was appointed in April 2019 but stepped down after just five months. The CEO position remained vacant for several months until Phùng Tuấn Đức was finally appointed in July 2020. He held the position for under three years.
Simultaneously, Gojek Vietnam’s parent company, the GoTo Group, went public in April 2022. The market reaction was swift, with the stock plummeting over 80% within months and shareholders placing pressure on the group to achieve profitability by the end of 2024.
In January 2023, Sumit Rathor, from the GoTo Group’s regional team, was appointed as the first non-Vietnamese head of Gojek Vietnam with a mandate to cut costs.
Increased competition
At the same time, Gojek Vietnam had failed to effectively penetrate the four-wheel ride-hailing segment, launching GoCar only in August 2021, or three years after entering Vietnam. By then, Grab and Be, Vietnam’s homegrown super-app, had already secured the car segment.
Simultaneously, this market was starting to see increased competition. Xanh SM (GSM), VinGroup’s electric taxi service with an owned fleet and salaried drivers, launched in April 2023, and by Q1 2024, it had grabbed about 32% of the market, becoming the second largest ride-hailing platform in Vietnam after Grab, and pushing Gojek Vietnam to the fifth position with a 22% share, according to a Decision Lab report.
With the loss of market share, Gojek Vietnam’s business results deteriorated. In 2023, the company’s revenue plummeted to around VND 200 billion (US$7.6 million), while its competitors all earned over a trillion VND (US$34 million), according to Vietdata, a market research and economic data provider focused on the Vietnamese market.
That year, GoJek Vietnam’s losses stood at VND 250 billion (US$9.5 million), bringing the company’s total losses to approximately VND 5.7 trillion (US$217 million) throughout its entire existence.
In September 2024, the GoTo Group eventually announced that GoJek Vietnam would cease operations later that month, with the country contributing less than 0.5% of the group’s gross transaction volume (GTV) and 2% of the GTV of on-demand services in Q2 2024, GoTo Corporate Secretary Koesoemohadiani said at the time.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by magnific via Magnific
