Gojek, Indonesia’s most valuable startup, has staunched losses this year from key services such as ride-hailing and delivery, putting the company on track for eventual profitability.

Co-chief executive officers Andre Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi said in an interview Gojek’s annualised gross transaction value across four South-East Asian countries climbed 10% from a year earlier to more than US$12bil as of the end of September. And the number of registered food merchants using its platform to reach consumers in South-East Asia hit 900,000 this month, almost doubling from 500,000 a year ago.

"It’s so easy to charge more for short-term profitability, but if customers, drivers and merchants think we are a better platform, then we will be able to monetise,” Soelistyo said. "For us, sustainability is the mantra.”

Gojek, which got started as a tiny call center in Jakarta connecting consumers and motorcycle drivers, celebrated its 10th anniversary on Thursday. The car-hailing giant in 2020 streamlined its core businesses and expanded deeper into groceries. Since Covid-19, its groceries business has grown six-fold in terms of annualised total transaction value, underling surging demand during the pandemic, according to the company. Gojek is emerging from a hard year as lockdowns and wariness about spending triggered an Indonesian downturn and forced the company to cut jobs.

It now has about 38 million monthly active users across South-East Asia, while gross transaction value in its payments-related businesses have exceeded pre-pandemic levels as more consumers and merchants turn to digital services.

Indonesia’s economy is over the worst of its post-Covid slump, while household spending and investment should help it recover, according to its finance minister. Gross domestic product will grow 0.1% in the fourth quarter after the country posted its first back-to-back economic contraction since the Asian financial crisis of two decades ago, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

 - Bloomberg