Foreign brands are guilty of treating South East Asia as “one country” – a misconception which has helped to fuel the growth of local taxi app start-up GrabTaxi.

Speaking to M&M Global at last month’s Festival of Media Asia Pacific 2015 in Singapore, GrabTaxi’s global vice president for marketing Cheryl Goh said one of the brand’s strengths is its commitment to being “hyper-local”.

“The biggest misconception is that South East Asia is like one country, or one continent, and people are very similar. We understand, because we live here, that every country is very different,” said Goh.

“The taxi problem is Malaysia and Singapore is completely different. Whenever we approach a problem, we approach it from a country-level lens.”

Rather than attempt global domination, like rivals such as Uber and Hailo, Goh insisted GrabTaxi would continue to focus on existing markets – with potential diversification on the way.

“We are not the kind of company that wants to be in 100 cities and just putting our flag there. It’s about making a real impact,” she said. “Today, in South East Asia, there’s still so much we can do. We are very much in taxis, but there are other forms of taxis, like bikes for example, where we could expand our service.”