Last week, three home-grown companies, taxi operator ComfortDelGro and ride-hailing companies Ryde and Tada, joined Huawei’s app store AppGallery. This came on the heels of Huawei announcing its latest P40 series smartphones.
Due to the ongoing trade war between China and the United States, the new smartphones do not come with Google Mobile Services, which include Google Play Store, Google Maps and other Google services.
However, the AppGallery – which is bundled with the P40 series – works just like the Google Play Store.
Launched in March 2018, available in more than 170 countries and regions and with more than 400 million monthly users worldwide, the AppGallery is the third-largest app store in the world.
It is powered by Huawei Mobile Services, an ecosystem of Huawei services that has more than 1.3 million developers and partners.
About 60 per cent of locally developed apps are now available in the AppGallery, according to Huawei Singapore. The Chinese tech giant told The Straits Times it is continually working to add more local apps to the AppGallery.
ComfortDelGro Taxi chief executive officer Ang Wei Neng says: “We are thrilled to be a part of this exciting venture with Huawei. We look forward to bringing better customer experiences within a secured ecosystem to all Huawei smartphone users and more.”
Users of the Mate 30, Mate Xs and P40 series smartphones can now use the ComfortDelGro app to book a taxi with fixed-or metered-fare options, as well as use in-app cashless payments and its promotional codes and the “Pay for Street Hail” feature. This allows users to pay for street-hail trips by scanning a QR code on the vehicle’s cashless payment terminal.
“Since we embarked on our digital-transformation journey a couple of years back, the interface on our ComfortDelGro booking app has been continuously refined, making it easy for commuters to book and pay for taxi trips,” says Mr Ang.
Ride-hailing service Tada, launched in Singapore in 2018, is challenging the status quo by offering a zero-commission service to woo passengers with more attractive fares and to appeal to drivers who get to keep their full earnings.
Mr Jonathan Chua, general manager of Tada, says: “We will be collaborating closely in the coming months to make ride hailing rewarding with various exciting promotions for Tada and Huawei users.”
The Ryde app allows users to carpool, book a taxi and hail a private-hire car with pet-friendly options.
Mr Terence Zou, chief executive officer and founder of Ryde Technologies, says: “We saw how our partnership and collaboration could synergise and benefit users on Huawei devices and allowing for trips on Ryde, which adds value to the ecosystem as a whole.”
In addition, UOB Mighty last month became the first home-grown consumer mobile banking app to be available in the AppGallery.
The award-winning app lets UOB customers access a suite of banking transactions – from payments to rewards redemption.
- This feature is brought to you by Huawei.
