I was in Manila last month, and mostly took Uber; the experience was exactly like using it in the US.<p>I took one Grab ride, and the experience couldn't have been more different. I booked the ride on Grab, and saw the car coming towards me on the map. Just as it arrived, the driver waved to me out of his car, and then canceled the ride in the app. The car & licence plate were completely different to the one shown in the app.<p>Next to the driver was sat his friend, who talked to me throughout the 10 minute ride, and gave me his cards in case I needed to book a hotel or ride on my next visit.<p>When we arrived, I gave cash to the driver (the amount that the app had priced it at originally) and bolted. I couldn't leave any feedback in the app, because the canceled ride had disappeared.<p>It's hard to tell if this is a one-off weird experience, or a typical Grab ride. Either way, it made me unlikely to want to use it again, and I was planning to go back to Uber on my next trip to SE Asia.
Dividing up the world into monopolies that's vaguely reminiscent of the Merchant Kings[1].<p>[1] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Kings-Companies-Ruled-1600-1900/dp/0312616112" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Kings-Companies-Ruled-1600-1...</a>
FYI: Grab is the company that Steve Yegge moved to. He wrote about leaving his last company for it in a recent blog post:<p><a href="https://medium.com/@steve.yegge/why-i-left-google-to-join-grab-86dfffc0be84" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@steve.yegge/why-i-left-google-to-join-gr...</a>