Swat Mobility Philippines country business head Maria Theresa Busmente (Photo courtesy of Swat Mobility Philippines)
MANILA – The continued reopening of the Philippine economy made officials of a Singapore-based ride-sharing company optimistic about a four to five times expansion in ridership following the launch of its local operations in 2020.
Swat Mobility Philippines’ ridership has reached around 1 million to date, which accounts for 25 percent of the technology-based ride-sharing company’s total ridership and is on top 3 after Singapore and Japan, after it started operations in May 2020.
“For this year, in terms of goal, we’re looking at four to five times (growth). Pretty much this is challenging (but) I think this is something achievable because currently, we have actually set-up a number of clients already,” Swat Mobility Philippines country business head Maria Theresa Busmente said in a virtual briefing on Thursday.
Busmente said the company has “secured long-term contracts now being set up as compared to our experience in the early parts where most of our operations are just on trial basis.”
“But now these are all long-term,” she said.
Busmente said they continue to look at large companies and enterprises that provide shuttle service to their employees.
“Pretty much there are also requests coming from insurance companies, even pharmas (pharmaceutical companies). Also, a number of hospitals are also trying to give us interest,” she added.
During the same briefing, Swat Mobility president Grace Ho said there are a lot of opportunities in the Philippines given its large manufacturing, services, and business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors, among others.
Ho said essential workers, such as those from the medical field, are among their initial clients, with the help of Toyota Mobility Foundation.
“Opportunity came during the crisis but at the same time, there was good product market-fit because we’re a technology-enabled mobility solution,” she said.
Asked for the amount of investment in the Philippines so far, Ho did not give exact figures but said they plan to triple it this year to “more than a quarter million (Singapore dollars).”
“While we are headquartered in Singapore, we are on a very aggressive expansion agency so we hope that (the) Philippines will continue to be ranked not just top three but maybe even top two of my business as we track the year,” she said. (PNA)
