Vinasun lost its taxi market to Grab by fighting in court instead of in the street

Vinasun was Ho Chi Minh City's dominant taxi company, with thousands of cars and decades of brand recognition. When Grab, a Malaysian ride-hailing app, entered Vietnam in 2014, Vinasun faced the same disruption taxi companies everywhere were confronting. Its response was not to build a competing app or improve its service — it was to sue.

Vinasun won its legal battle. In 2018 a court ordered Grab to pay VND4.8 billion ($207,000) in damages for unfair competition. Grab appealed, and the case dragged on for years. While the lawyers argued, Grab's network of drivers grew, its wait times shrank, and its prices undercut metered taxis. Vinasun's fleet of 6,800 cars in 2014 sat idle in parking lots as passengers switched to their phones.

By 2020 the damage was irreversible. Vinasun posted its first quarterly loss ever — VND111 billion ($4.8M) in Q2 alone — and its first annual loss in 12 years, VND210 billion. In 2021 losses deepened to VND277 billion. The company sold 2,900 of its vehicles to survive, laid off 2,500 employees including 1,800 drivers, and by end of 2021 had cut its workforce to 1,877 — down from over 5,000 two years earlier. Its stock faced delisting after three consecutive loss-making years.

A brief post-pandemic recovery in 2022–2023 brought modest profits, but by 2024 profits were plunging again and a Singaporean fund sold its entire 9.5% stake. The company that once dominated Ho Chi Minh City's transport had been reduced to a fraction of its former self, its strategy of legal resistance having done nothing to stop the disruption.