Ride-hailing applications in Southeast Asia: A literature review

Abstract

This paper provides a review of the literature on ride-hailing applications (RHA) in Southeast Asia (SEA) to enhance the understanding of RHA’s impacts on the urban transportation sector and to inform related planning and regulatory efforts in the context of developing countries. The conceptual framework is based on the stakeholder approach, which identifies three groups of stakeholders: the demand-side, the supply-side, and the public-sector stakeholders. A search on scholarly databases yielded 49 related articles. The results of the review illustrate certain similarities between RHA services in SEA with those reported from developed countries, such as the socio-economic profile of the users. However, several observations unique to the SEA context were also revealed, including (1) the dominance of motorcycles; (2) commuting as the main RHA trip purpose; (3) a higher frequency of RHA use; and (4) a significant proportion of full-time RHA drivers. The review also highlighted research gaps in the literature of RHA in SEA, particularly on how RHA can influence travelers’ behavior, its effects on the incumbent transport operators, and its environmental impacts.