Global taxi apps such as Uber and Hailo have not conquered South-East Asia as they are not committed to being “hyper-local”, according to GrabTaxi’s top marketer Cheryl Goh.

Speaking today at the Festival of Media Asia Pacific 2015 (FOMA), Goh, GrabTaxi’s global vice president marketing, claimed the company’s success was due to its deep understanding of the region.

The taxi app has achieved market leadership in six countries, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Its app has been downloaded 3.6 million times, and the company claims it has a fleet of 70,000 vehicles, the largest in the region.

Goh said GrabTaxi had taken its time to understand how to approach each market, from safety concerns in Indonesia to a need for efficiency in Singapore.

“For us, the difference with global companies is that have a global strategy which they try to make local, but we start with a hyper local perspective,” said Goh. “The reason we exist is we are hyper local – we judge ourselves with local issues.”

“We also operate hyper-local in areas such as driver recruitment. In Malaysia we go to petrol stations, whereas in Vietnam we have to pay the fare, get into the car and talk to them.”

Goh said the firm has a rigorous approach to data, but does not get hung up with “vanity metrics” which do not contribute to the bottom line.

“We place a lot of influence on big data, and not just vanity metrics. So what if I have 1m people on my Facebook, especially if I pay for it? If downloads grow, but rides don’t, we know it’s not right,” she said.

“It’s really easy to grow stuff which doesn’t derive the results you want. It’s easy to drive conversions, but if you’re not driving the right conversations you’re not doing your job as a marketer.”

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