Talks of a possible merger between Southeast Asia’s two largest tech super-apps, Seize and GoTo, have as soon as once more captured the area’s consideration.
The 2 corporations—long-time rivals in ride-hailing, meals supply, and digital funds—have held on-and-off talks since early 2024, however this time, momentum seems to be constructing with the Indonesian authorities’s sovereign wealth fund, Danantara, stepping in to facilitate talks aimed toward making a regional tech big.
If the merger goes forward, Danantara might obtain a minority stake within the mixed entity, together with particular rights over its Indonesian operations.
However behind the headlines lies an even bigger query: has Southeast Asia’s super-app dream peaked?
Each Seize and GoTo spent years racing to dominate each nook of customers’ digital lives, fueled by billions in enterprise capital and a growth-at-all-costs technique.
However investor persistence has worn skinny after years of heavy money burn and unprofitable operations. Fairly than a transfer to increase, the potential merger appears to be like like a truce between rivals—a strategy to cease competing, not begin rising.
A near-monopoly in Southeast Asia
Each Seize and GoTo have spent the previous decade battling for a similar clients in overlapping markets.
A merger would enable them to cease competing head-to-head and obtain near-monopoly positions in ride-hailing, controlling virtually 90% of Singapore’s market and greater than 91% in Indonesia, according to Euromonitor International.
Analysts say the deal would bring immediate scale advantages. The mixed group might consolidate driver and service provider networks, reduce duplicate advertising and marketing and know-how prices, rationalise incentives, and extract working leverage throughout their companies.
These efficiencies would prolong past ride-hailing throughout their different verticals, potentially putting pressure on rivals like Shopee, Lazada, and digital banking platforms.
And this issues as a result of each corporations have been below strain to display sustainable profitability, notably after going public. Seize and GoTo had a combined market value of US$72 billion at their 2021 and 2022 listings.
Since then, shares have tumbled—Seize down greater than 50% and GoTo over 80%, largely because of fierce regional competitors. Most just lately, GoTo shareholders, together with SoftBank, even reportedly pushed for the removal of its CEO amid declining share costs.
Each companies have additionally confronted years of losses. Though Seize just lately posted its fourth consecutive profitable quarter in Q3 2025, that revenue was pushed not by fast development or new clients, however at tighter price administration and extra disciplined incentive spending.
GoTo additionally endured multi-year losses earlier than turning profitable on an adjusted basis in 2024, following job cuts and stringent cost-cutting measures, together with the downsizing and majority sale of its loss-making e-commerce unit, Tokopedia, to ByteDance’s TikTok to the tune of roughly US$1.5 billion.
However whether or not they can proceed this momentum will rely upon how these two corporations navigate shifting development fashions and handle intense market competitors, particularly as customers within the area are spending more cautiously amid high inflation and rising interest rates—a merger might provide a strategy to stabilise operations and scale back aggressive pressures.
The trail to a merger isn’t so easy
However the path forward isn’t straightforward.
Whereas the merger might ship important operational efficiencies and scale benefits for each companies, it raises issues for customers and the broader market.
An academic from Universitas Airlangga in Indonesia cautioned that the mixed entity might exploit its dominance to set costs at customers’ expense.
“The Seize–GoTo merger opens the door to predatory pricing,” he mentioned. “They might begin by slashing costs, capitalising on improved effectivity. This might eradicate opponents, and as soon as they dominate the market, they may freely set costs at customers’ expense.”
Furthermore, the dimensions of the merged entity could be unprecedented throughout a number of industries, far past Seize’s earlier concentrate on Singapore and native consolidation.
Proof from previous offers highlights the dangers. As an example, the Competitors and Client Fee of Singapore (CCCS), Singapore’s competitors watchdog, discovered that Seize raised prices by 10–15%, altered its rewards scheme, and diminished incentives for drivers following its merger with Uber in 2018.
The watchdog decided the deal anti-competitive, and issued a mixed superb of S$13 million to each events. Seize was additionally required to take away exclusivity obligations on its drivers and taxi fleets.
Equally, Seize’s proposed acquisitions of taxi firm Trans-Cab and supply platform foodpanda had been both blocked or deserted following regulatory scrutiny.
The Trans-Cab deal, as an example, was deemed prone to create barriers for rival platforms, doubtlessly elevating prices for each drivers and passengers. Consequently, Seize finally pursued its own taxi license, ultimately coming into the inustry as GrabCab. In the meantime, the foodpanda acquisition was dropped after a CCCS probe in February 2024, which raised comparable competitors issues.
The Seize-GoTo merger might fall by means of if competitors watchdogs elevate issues just like these seen in these earlier consolidation offers. To mitigate regulatory pushback, the ride-hailing corporations are reportedly in discussions to supply Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund, Danantara, a “golden share” within the merged entity.
A golden share is a particular kind of fairness that grants its holder distinctive rights, typically together with the flexibility to veto key selections or shield nationwide pursuits.
On this case, it will apply solely to the Indonesian operations, giving Danantara the facility to safeguard authorities priorities whereas permitting the merged entity to function throughout the broader area.
Making a US$29 billion tech big
It stays to be seen if the merger will undergo, given these issues.
But when accredited, it will create a Southeast Asian tech giant worth US$29 billion, combining mobility, supply, e-commerce, and fintech operations below one umbrella. The merger would additionally symbolize essentially the most advanced company integration in Southeast Asia’s tech historical past.
This contains aligning company cultures and integrating overlapping models like GrabPay/GoPay and Tokopedia/GrabMart, in addition to managing hyper-local driver, service provider, and person ecosystems throughout totally different nations.
As well as, shopper blowback to the potential creation of an efficient monopoly over such on a regular basis companies might be monumental.
Technical hurdles round separate cloud architectures, knowledge localisation legal guidelines, AI techniques, and regulatory compliance will even decide whether or not the merger delivers true efficiencies or collapses into pricey integration chaos.
- Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Anggun Dangerous Darmawan/ Shutterstock.com
