The latest fully Vietnamese ride-hailing service, Aber, launched in Hanoi last Friday, four months after its first appearance in Saigon.
After Uber's exit from the Southeast Asian market, a number of ride-sharing platforms such as Indonesian Go-Jek, Singaporean MVL and local outfits VATO and T.NET have all announced their entrances into Vietnam's market, threatening Grab's monopoly. The latest competitor in the market is Aber — a ride-hailing app developed in 2015 by a group of young Vietnamese engineers who are studying in Europe.
Despite the uncanny resemblance between Aber's name and the now-unavailable Uber, Huynh Le Phu Phong, Aber's business development director, explained to Viet Times in Vietnamese that Aber is short for Am Besten Fahrer — which translates to "the best driver" in German — and Absolute Driver in English.
According to VnExpress, Aber estimates that they will work with approximately 5,000 taxi drivers and as many as 10,000 motorbike drivers, although they will not be on exclusive contracts.
"We do not force drivers to only work for Aber. They can also work for other companies to increase their income and improve their lives," Phong said.
Potential users and drivers can reportedly look forward to a few attractive features from Aber: the company guaranteed that Aber will not implement surge pricing during rush hour, a practice employed by both Grab and Uber which receives a considerable amount of criticism from users.
According to Phong, drivers can expect to benefit more from the app, as Aber will eliminate the fee commission model seen in many ride-hailing platforms. Instead, it will charge a monthly service maintenance fee for bike drivers who make more than VND499,000 a month and car drivers who make more than VND4,999,000 a month. The fee starts at VND70,000 for bike drivers and VND750,000 for car drivers and will increase as drivers make more money.
[Photo via Nikkei Asian Reveiw]
