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Collaborative consumption starts up in Vietnam with Uber, Airbnb, Triip.me
Update: 18:08, Monday, Sep 01,2014 (GMT+7)
Collaborative consumption (aka “the sharing economy” or “peer to peer”) is a broad term used to describe the shared creation, supply and consumption of goods and services. Typically it involves the use of technology platforms (usually the internet) to link supply and demand, enabling supply-side and demand-side to share resources and capacity in an efficient way. It's considered to bring high economic value and quite an impact on the consumers as well as traditional enterprises.

Uber provides Vietnam with a touch of luxury, low fares

Since June 2014, local and foreign passengers in Ho Chi Minh City have enjoyed the luxury and convenience of Uber, an American taxi service that offers expensive vehicles, which gives passengers the feeling of riding in their own lavish cars.


It only takes a few swipes on a smartphone for clients to start up their Uber app, pick a car, and select the location where they wish to be picked up. The app instantly tells them that a car with a specified license plate will arrive in 10-15 minutes and also provides them a photo of the driver. The passengers can also track the car on their phone. Uber cars have no markings on the outside to show that they are rented.

Uber, which is based in San Francisco, was launched in 2009 and offers a mobile app connecting passengers and its cars. The company has faced significant resistance from regulators in America and Europe, as well as protests from taxi operators, who claim the service is unfair competition and fails to meet the standards set for such services. Uber operates in 36 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Each car is equipped with an iPhone, attached to the windshield, so that drivers can receive messages from clients, road directions, and calculate fares. The fares are relatively low, compared to those offered by local taxi operators. But one limit to the use of Uber services in Vietnam’s cash-preferring market is that fares are debited from clients’ credit cards, while cash is not accepted. As soon as the car stops and the driver swipes on the iPhone to mark the end of the journey, an email with a bill and detailed record of the trip is sent to the clients’ phone.

Taxi-hailing apps, including GrabTaxi, Easy Taxi, Tappxi and myTaxiControl, are racing to lure clients in Vietnam. Taxi locater and booking apps allow people to find the nearest available cabs and arrange a ride with a driver based on information regarding the distance and fare calculated by software, thanks to GPS technology. The whole trip will then be constantly updated in real time via Google Maps on the app, erasing the fear of customers that they will be cheated by the drivers on longer routes.

Taxi drivers also say they benefit from the apps, as they know where their customers are and do not have to worry about having them ‘stolen’ by other cabbies. Some drivers also say that with the apps, they have received more passengers than they did previously.

Airbnb offers unique accommodations from local hosts in 190 countries to its travellers

Airbnb is a startup that lets users seek out non-hotel travel accommodations listed by other hosts. Users all over the world can post spaces available for rent; in turn, Airbnb allows customers to rent out those spaces, which could be available anywhere from a couple of days to a month. Another advantage of Airbnb is that homeowners can help plan to go or places leads us to places only the locals know.


This startup makes money by charging a transaction fee for each successful booking. Airbnb has been invested $ 500 million from new investors, bringing the company's value up to $ 10 billion, not inferior to the giants Hyatt and Accor. Airbnb is also particularly loved by foreign tourists for not only providing a high quality place to stay at a cheaper price compared to ordinary hotel, but also creating a chance for tourists exchange their cultural knowledge and experience as a truly indigenous.

After Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, Vietnam could be the next destination of this online sharing rental services. Airbnb has supported VND currrency, and started to recruit local person to connect to the hosts as well as do customer care in Vietnam, prepare for the first step to enter this potential market.

Triip.me - Impression of Vietnamese start ups

Triip.me is a tourism service development based on community resources, turns an ordinary Vietnamese local into an amateur tour guide overnight. Allowing anyone to create a tourism package and sell in to tourists on their website and iPhone app, this start ups has also released Wiki Triip, which combines information online about various Vietnamese destinations into one smartphone app. Currently, Triip.me has more than 1870 tours to 21 countries and 55 cities across Asia, in which 500 has been published on the website.


10% total gross amount of each tour booking contributed most of Triip.me's income in the first opening period. Future goals of Triip.me are improving the safety for its users as well as becoming a global provider for uniquely indigenous tourism experiences.

A.K.

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Tags: UberAirbnbTriipmeSharing economyCollaborative consumption
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