Ambitious Myanmar startup looks to expand overseas
WITH online to offline (O2O) platforms on the rise across Asia, Get All Myanmar Co, a locally owned enterprise that began commercial operations in February this year, is confident that it will be able to expand overseas in a few years, according to Nyein Chan Soe Win, the firm’s co-founder and chief executive.
“We have created an ecosystem in which people from all walks of life can be easily involved. We believe our services will reach out to all parts of Myanmar by 2030, and thereby will expand overseas as a regional player,” he said in an exclusive interview.
The firm has been registered in both Myanmar and Singapore since July 2017. Singapore-registered Get All Private Ltd owns 100 per cent of Get All Myanmar Co, which aims to expand its presence in Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as in West Africa simultaneous with nationwide expansion.
“We aim to provide our services in the countries that share the same or similar fundamentals as ours. In the long term, we want to be successful as a regional player rather than competing for a bigger share of the pie at home,” he said.
“You may think we are ambitious but it is just a realistic target. With a burning desire, everything is possible.”
According to the executive, Get is a digital commerce platform that empowers micro-entrepreneurs with technology in order to be competitive in the future economy. The firm builds the digital economy infrastructure to raise the livelihood of people from the base of the pyramid through economic inclusion.
Currently, the firm mainly focuses on two key sectors – ride-hailing and e-commerce. GetRide is a community-based ride-hailing network that aims to empower drivers in Myanmar with modern technology to improve their income by establishing an interactive platform between drivers and passengers. Get Digital Store is a point-of-sale machine that enables any user to instantly become a micro-entrepreneur, providing multiple essential products and services from air and bus tickets to hotel rooms, tours and mobile top ups digitally.
“Our principal goal is to build a kind of technology-focused economic foundation in Myanmar, while bringing efficiency and availability of various logistics services to every corner of the street,” said Nyein Chan Soe Win.
The firm now has a gross merchandise value of more than US$1 million (Bt32 million), and enjoys seven-digit revenue in US dollar terms every month. In the first three months of its commercial operations, the firm enjoyed up to 100 times month-on-month growth, and aims to sustain a 10-fold increase in revenue in the months to come, he said.
Get Digital Shop now has more than 15,000 agents across Myanmar, and aims to widen its network to over 60,000 agents by the end of 2019. To date, it has covered the majority of Myanmar’s states and regions, except Kachin, Kayah, Chin and Tanintharyi. It will also launch full-stack e-commerce services like Alibaba’s by early January.
“More than 80 per cent of our agents are traditional shops, and we are now focusing on expansion outside Yangon. Customer-care services are available via digital channels and hotline numbers from 6am to 11pm. We are also taking 24-hour customer-care services into serious consideration,” he said.
In the ride-hailing business, the firm currently partners with more than 10,000 drivers, and only 20 per cent of them are from Yangon, the nation’s commercial hub. Currently, around 60 per cent of GetRide vehicles are three-wheelers, which seem popular in many cities and towns.
The firm’s ride-hailing services are now available in six cities – Yangon, Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin, Monywa, Sittwe and Bagan. By the end of this year, the number of GetRide taxis in Yangon is expected to reach 10,000. The firm will expand to eight more cities, including Mawlamyaing and Pathein, next year.
“We now serve three types of vehicles – automobiles, three-wheelers and motorbikes. But we are encouraging motorcyclists to become drivers of three-wheelers for their own safety. For that, we recently embarked on a hire-purchase scheme for the drivers so that they are able to own their vehicles after a certain period,” he said.
However, he expects the number of cars to overtake three-wheelers and motorbikes in the longer term once GetRide partners with all the taxi drivers in Yangon. The firm currently has a workforce of over 100 employees, half of whom are based in Yangon. It has partnered with the University of Information Technology for a short-term internship programme every year, which aims to play a crucial role in recruiting new employees.
