GoTo is to give away thousands of shares to each of 600,000 drivers as part of its US$1.1 billion Indonesian initial public offering (IPO), it said yesterday, setting a precedent for Southeast Asia’s sharing economy.
Drivers who registered with the ride-hailing and delivery app between 2010 and 2016 would receive 4,000 GoTo shares, equivalent to US$94 based on the IPO price of 338 rupiah. Those who registered from 2017 to February would get 1,000 shares, part of a total pool of more than US$20 million allocated for drivers, it said in a statement.
GoTo, formed through the merger of Gojek with e-commerce pioneer Tokopedia, raised US$1.1 billion in one of the biggest stock debuts this year and is slated to list in Jakarta on Monday next week.
Photo: AFP
While the giveaway represents a token amount, GoTo becomes the first major sharing-economy giant in Southeast Asia to include part-time gig workers in its own IPO windfall.
“It’s an acknowledgment that our driver-partners are part of our success,” chief executive officer Andre Soelistyo said in an interview. “This is something we’ve wanted to do since the beginning.”
App-based gig-economy companies are typically built on the backs of low-wage contract workers, who work long hours but continue to lack employee benefits like health care or a safety net.
Their plight has gained regulatory and public attention in the past few years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when Internet platforms flourished, but social inequities widened. Singapore and other governments are considering legislative changes to protect gig-economy workers.
Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc, which went public in 2019, gave frequent drivers cash to buy stock in the US, but the practice in Asia is rare.
South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang Inc promised staff and frontline workers about US$90 million worth of restricted stock. GoTo’s rival Grab Holdings Ltd — which went public through a merger with a blank-check company in December last year — handed out rewards equivalent to US$1.4 million to drivers and merchant partners in Indonesia ahead of its listing.
GoTo’s drivers, who are not classified as employees, but independent contractors, might choose to hold the stocks or cash out after an initial eight-month lockup period, the company’s prospectus showed.
The “Gotong Royong” share grant to drivers is part of a broader program that includes merchants, consumers and employees. Loyal merchants and consumers of Gojek and Tokopedia got priority access when ordering GoTo shares during the book-building period.
All full-time employees have received equity under the program, Soelistyo said.
The company had a total of 8,540 staff at the end of July last year.
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