Indonesia has capped ride-hailing platform commissions at 8%, winning support from drivers while leaving capital markets notably silent. This is not just Indonesia’s story. It reflects a legal vacuum that Vietnam is also confronting — not only in ride-hailing apps but across the broader platform economy, which is increasingly embedded in daily life. What kind of business is a digital platform? Vietnamese law has no clear answer On May 1, 2026, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto signed a decree capping commissions charged by ride-hailing platforms at 8%, sharply down from the roughly 20% currently collected by major platforms from drivers. He put it bluntly: “Drivers are the ones sweating, but platforms are the ones collecting the money.” That scene has not yet played out in Vietnam. But the legal questions behind it already exist—and remain unresolved. In Vietnam today, digital platforms are exerting growing influence across multiple sectors: ride-hailing and food delivery, e-commerce, accommodation services, cleaning services, peer-to-peer lending, and more. What they all have in common is this: platforms do not directly produce goods or provide services. Instead, they create applications that connect service providers with users and charge a fee per transaction. The first legal question appears simple: what […]