As motorbike-based ride-sharing service Angkas continues to make waves of headlines in the Philippines, e27 breaks down the series of events that led to this week.

The lead-up

It started when thousands of Angkas bikers took to the streets on December 27, 2019, to express their disapproval for a new policy that would result in job loss for 17,000 riders. Announced during holiday season, the policy was put into action primarily for safety and traffic management measures.

Angkas had to resort to social media to call for support from their users, leading to a popular #SaveAngkas hashtag on Twitter.

These social movements did work for Angkas as it prompted the Philippine Competition Commission to appeal to Land Transportation Franchising and Regulation Board (LTFRB) to reconsider its decision of limiting 10,000 bikers per motorcycle firm.

“Angkas business was not like Grab which acquired its competitor and therefore became dominant and a monopoly. Here Angkas grew out of its own efforts. In a sense, you are taking away what Angkas has worked hard on obtaining, which is a driver base,” said Bernabe in an interview.

Here, Bernabe refers to the time when Grab acquired Uber and created a monopoly in Singapore.

However, Antonia Gardiola, another member of the LTFRB, put forth another argument. He puts emphasis on the notion that now the drivers will have the option to choose from two additional players. 

The controversy ended up with the launch of a pilot run from December 23 to March 23, which was meant to test the safety and practicality of motorbike-based public transportation.

Things seem to be doing well until the pilot run was ended before its time. The technical working group in chrage of the pilot run submitted its statement to the congress, urging the Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary and the congress “to immediately terminate the implementation of the pilot study,” according to a letter addressed to Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade.

Angkas was also accused of emotionally blackmailing the government. An LFTRB board member has also accused the ride-sharing company of deceiving the riders as nobody will lose their job with the new cap.

Also Read: Filipino Senator seeks to declare the Singaporean founder of Angkas persona non grata

To add another blow to the already heated up situation, Filipino senator Aquilino Koko Pimentel filed a resolution to declare Angkas’s Singaporean founder Angeline Xiwen Tham a persona non grata, or unwanted person. He stressed that Tham holds almost full ownership of Angkas, which is against the local law, whereby Filipinos must own 60 per cent of public transport companies.

Slowly this conflict begins to get more and more personal, as senator was quoted saying, “Tham is merely a guest in our country, yet she is already acting like an oligarch which seems hell-bent on becoming at our expense.”

What startups can learn from this conflict

In comparison, even as many ride-sharing apps failed to make peace with the government, sometimes having good administration connections can lead a long way. Take an example of Nadiem Makarim, the charismatic ex-CEO of Indonesian ride-sharing app gojek. Not only that he managed to tactfully work with the government when it tried to place a ban on ride-sharing services, but he is also part of the government today.

The savviness of Makarim’s government relations skills was also displayed when Malaysian Youth Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman endorses the company on Twitter, leading to the eventual legalisation of motorbike-based ride-sharing service in the country.

But this could also mean that this situation is in itself a lesson to all startup founders: Startups need to have good government relations skills.

While Angkas has been harbouring public support, ultimately the government will be the one to decide who goes and who stays.

What this will mean for Angkas in the future 

A lot of people in the Philippines and outside of the country see Angkas as an extremely fast, cheap, and reliable mode of transport. This comes forward as the company has a near-perfect safety record in the region.

Also Read:  Motor taxis declared illegal in the Philippines as pilot run ends before time

This move by the Philippine government can be seen as overregulating innovative transport solutions which may be seen as a hurdle for future transport solutions.

What are the possible alternatives for Angkas?

There have been suggestions for the company to switch from motorbike-based ride-sharing to car-based one. But certainly, these two services have a different value proposition. It also has a different driver community to manage.

Since foreign ownership also seems to be the problem here, Angkas might need to consider increasing the number of local ownership –and leadership– within its corporations.

Either way, this is a challenging time for both the company and the ride-sharing community in the country. While it might sound anticlimactic to say that there was nothing that we can do but to wait and see, we see this situation as comparable to being in a crossroad: Anything can happen.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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