Indonesia’s GoTo Says Losses Tripled In First Quarter After Going Public

GoTo released its much-anticipated first-quarter numbers that saw its losses deepen as sales went up.

The ride-hailing and e-commerce company said on Monday that its gross revenue climbed to 5.2 trillion rupiah ($356 million) in the first quarter, a 53% jump from the same period a year earlier. But GoTo also reported that its losses widened to 6.61 trillion rupiah in the same period from 1.95 trillion rupiah last year. It’s the first time GoTo released its financial figure since its $1.1 billion IPO in April.

GoTo Group CEO Andre Soelistyo said the sharp increase in losses was because the company’s first quarter figures in 2021 didn’t include Tokopedia (the Gojek-Tokopedia merger was completed in May). The company intends to continue to focus on ecosystem synergies to enhance growth, monetization and efficiency in its quest to turn the company around from the red.

“As we deepen integration of the businesses, we have been able to enhance operating efficiencies, create multiple cross-platform opportunities and invest for the future growth and profitability of GoTo,” Soelistyo said in a statement.

Currently, GoTo’s take rate has slightly improved to 3.7% from 3.5% thanks to better monetization in e-commerce and on-demand segments. The rate, however, is still lower than its peers in the region, such as Sea Group’s Shopee, which has a much stronger take rate of 7.5%.

GoTo also released its full-year figures Monday that saw its annual losses climb to 21.4 trillion rupiah, a 55% increase from the previous year. While its gross revenue jumped 43.5% to 17 trillion rupiah.

On-demand services were the largest source of GoTo’s revenue, contributing 10.3 trillion rupiah followed by e-commerce with 6.23 trillion rupiah. GoTo aims to reach between 5.3 and 5.6 trillion rupiah in gross revenue in the next quarter. The company said it will release its full-year outlook during its earnings call for the second-quarter period.

“We expect to reap significant additional benefits as we integrate Gojek, Tokopedia and GoTo Financial further, and have been investing accordingly in cross-platform integration since May 2021,” GoTo’s CFO Jacky Lo said.