Those who expected their Uber apps to stop working entirely when the clock struck midnight last night were probably pleasantly surprised to see it still working, even right now.
That’s because Uber’s last day in Singapore has been extended by a week to facilitate a probe conducted by the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS), which is investigating the merge over concerns that Grab will have a virtual monopoly on the ride-hailing market.
What this means is that Uber users in Singapore can continue using its services until April 15. A Grab spokesperson who spoke to TODAY said that the extension is only limited to the Singapore market.
Under the CCCS rules, both companies will not be allowed to integrate their operations until the CCCS investigation is finished. They will have to maintain separate pricing and cannot obtain confidential information from each other including costing or customer and driver details.
Following the acquisition of its Southeast Asia operations by Grab, Uber was supposed to make an official exit from the region on April 8. CCCS’s investigation might be a major stumbling block for the deal, and TODAY reported that it remains unclear how long the review would take.
For commuters here, this could sound like good news — Grab services suffered outages on two occasions last week, and Uber was thankfully still around to be the alternative ride-hailing option.
