Technology

Google has announced the second of two partnerships that will allow it to offer the financial services industry and others a cloud-based platform on which they can develop and run blockchain-based applications.

In a blog post ahead of its Google Cloud Next '18 conference this week, the search giant said it is partnering with Digital Asset and BlockApps to enable customers to "explore ways they might use distributed ledger technology (DLT) frameworks on Google's Cloud Platform (GCP)."

Life without Uber should be simple for Grab, but a battle with regulators in Singapore could see the companyacquisition of UberSoutheast Asia business unwound while some consumers have voiced concern around a lack of competition.

Grab co-founder Hooi Ling Tanrecently claimed competition remains in the market, but that hasn&t stopped another consumer backlash after the ride-hailing firm altered its loyalty program without warning.

To be fair to Grab, earning loyalty points for taxi rides is something unique — Uber doesn&t offer any kind of program, for example — and the changes initiated last week seem aimed at spreading the benefit beyond taxis and into Grabnewer ventures, which include its GrabPay payment service and food deliveries.

However, in doing so, the company made two cardinal sins. The changes included the lowering ofbenefits for Grabhighest tier (read: most loyal) customers — with rebates dropping from a range of 3.5-4.5 percent to 0.7-1.7 percent, as MileLion explains in thorough detail. Worse than that, it initiated the new terms, which include these drastic drops, on a Friday and with immediate effect.

That meant points earned over the past year were suddenly devalued with no apparent recourse.

10 July 2018; Tan Hooi Ling, Co-Founder, Grab, speaks at a pressconferencee during day one of RISE 2018 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Hong Kong. Photo by Stephen McCarthy / RISE via Sportsfile

Unsurprisingly that sparked a backlash, with many consumers accusing Grab of making the changes to save on money. (Grab has said it hasn&t increased prices after Uberexit despite some consumers claiming to the contrary.)

That led to a second announcement, made late on Monday, that postponed the introduction of the new loyalty program terms until September 30. However, it hasn&t scrapped the new changes themselves.Thatthe right move, and it gives customers the chance to spend the credit they earned in the way they believed it would be redeemed before the change kicks in.

&We acknowledge that customers would appreciate time to adjust to the changes. Effective tomorrow (24 July) at 8am until 30 September, GrabRewards members can claim ride reward points at the previous rates. Customers who have purchased Grab ride rewards based on the new rates will have the difference in points refunded,& the company said in a statement.

It added that it plans to introduce &more exclusive perks& for its higher-tier‘platinum& and ‘gold& customers before the end of the year. TechCrunch understands that will relate to partnerships with third-parties, enabling users to spend points accumulated with Grab in more places although details aren&t finalized.

In the past, competition with Uber might have given Grab some leeway for messing up communication with users. But, as this latest saga shows, the removal of that competition has dented consumer confidence in Grab, and that means every misstep has the potential to alienate or upset users more than it did in the past. Thatpart and parcel of adjusting from being the underdog fighting a global giant to being the biggest fish in the pond.

Catering marketplace company ezCater is already putting its big $100 million funding round to good use. The company is acquiring GoCater, a European marketplace that operates in the same field. This is ezCaterfirst international expansion move.

If you&re in charge of ordering catered lunch at your office, you probably have heard about ezCater . The company lets you order breakfast, lunch or dinner for 10, 30 or maybe 100 people at once. This service could be particularly useful to impress a client, throw an office party, get lunch together during an off-site and more.

But ezCater doesn&t cook anything itself. The company is a marketplace and connects you with catering companies and big restaurants around you. In other words, ezCater lets you browse the menu of dozens of restaurants around you from the same website and place an order without picking up the phone.

Of course, ezCater didn&t invent catering. But catering is a fragmented industry with a lot of friction. Ithard to know how much you&re going to pay in advance, it takes a lot of effort to find a new restaurant outside of your usual list. And restaurants could use a new way to promote their offering. Those are the perfect ingredients to create an online marketplace.

You may already know all the options around your office, but ordering through ezCater provides additional benefits. For instance, all your receipts are centralized in the same interface, which lets you get a clear overview of your spendings on catering.

You can also let other people order food for their clients and events. ezCater lets you set maximum amounts, tipping policies and more.

GoCater offers more or less the same thing, but in France and Germany. The company started as a spinoff from French startup La Belle Assiette. GoCater lets you create a whitelist of catering options. You can also set up an approval system so that the intern doesn&t order ice creams for everyone. Finally, GoCater clients only get billed once per month, even if companies order multiple times.

You pay the same price if you order through GoCater or the catering company directly. Catering companies end up paying a cut on GoCater orders. But the startup takes care of billing, accounting and accounts receivable. This way, you can focus on your core business instead of chasing money from past clients.

ezCater is an order of magnitude bigger than GoCater. ezCater works with 60,000 restaurants, while GoCater only has a few hundred restaurants on its platform. Itworth noting that ezCater has been around for much longer.

But GoCater has one big advantage over ezCater — they have a team on the ground in Europe, ready to attract new restaurants and corporate clients. Itclear that ezCater was looking for a way to get started in Europe, and GoCater seems like the right fit.

For now, the company will keep both brands after the acquisition. The teams will slowly merge the platforms into a single product.

&The entire GoCater team is staying, and we&re now going to rapidly expand the European team of the company — both the sales team for Europe and the tech and product team for the group,& GoCater founder and CEO Stephen Leguillon told me.