LiveUp is a membership platform led by Lazada, in association with Redmart, Taobao, Netflix, and Uber. The platform launched back in April this year, presumably as a counterweight to Amazon’s entry into the Singapore market.
Despite having heard of the program many times from different people, I’ve only just taken a serious look at it. On the surface, it appears to give great value if you frequently use its constituent merchants. You get a 60 day free trial, and then it’s just $28.80 a year (usual price $49.90). The membership comes with the following perks-
If you use Uber a lot, the $28.80 annual fee pays for itself with 30 rides. A LiveUp membership also gives you access to so-called LiveUp VIP Uber rides in Singapore. These are basically drivers with higher Uber ratings. The LiveUp VIP rides price the same as regular UberX rides.
I guess you could consider this to be Uber’s version of a loyalty program, but I really hope they launch a proper one soon to rival Grab Rewards.
I’m relatively more indifferent about the rest of the benefits, but others may find them useful. UberEats will give you free delivery up to 4 times a month for orders $35 and above, Redmart and Lazada will give you a 5% rebate on orders (which needs to be consumed on the same platform within 30 days of accrual), Taobao gives you free delivery on the Taobao collection, and Netflix gives you 6 months free subscription (2 months for your trial period, then a subsequent 4 months when you pay the $28.80). If you’re a regular user of these services the membership makes even more sense.
There are two places you can sign up for a LiveUp trial membership- RedMart or Lazada. RedMart wanted me to place an order before it activated my LiveUp trial, but Lazada had no such restriction. Within minutes of providing my details the activation email showed up in my inbox.
It doesn’t say how long the introductory price of $28.80 for a year will last, so if you’re interested you might want to start your trial period now and lock in this price.
Aaron! Don’t forget the $10 off LiveUp is giving if you purchase from RedMart! Use coupon 1ST20BJ4 (not a referral) for additional 20% off your first order.
if you do a lot of your grocery shopping on redmart (as i do), the membership more than pays for itself very quickly.
Question: do you find redmart prices to be competitive with brick and mortar?
I do, but service is lacking. The drivers are usually passive-aggresive and are either early or late.
Very good value for Netflix users!
Very! I got it primarily for discounted Netflix credit (x2 from spouse). Along the way I’ve started buying stuff off Lazada (free shipping for small orders is pretty great, as is the $6 off with min. $30 code from Citi) so I guess they’ve gained a customer, too.
Found out today that it’s not quite a seamless x2 Netflix credit if you get a second LiveUp account – the paid component (4 months’ credit) can’t be applied a second time to the same Netflix account, so you’ll need to create a second Netflix account to do that.
Still a pretty good deal if you were planning to pay for Netflix already, anyway. If you can’t be bothered to create a second Netflix account, I *was* able to apply the free trial component (2 months’s credit).
I’m not so sure:
-It is pretty easy to sign up to the US version of Neflix, which (with a VPN) gives you access to the whole catalog. In Singapore you don’t even get half that, then 6 months free don’t look as good.
-Lazada’s prices do not usually beat the competition on other websites or even brick-and-mortar retailers. Free shipping on an item that you could have bought for less in, say, Courts is not that great either.
I haven’t bought all that much stuff off Lazarda, but I do think there are some attractive offers on it, especially with promo codes. Could still be worthwhile looking out for, but agree that it might not be a great primary purpose for purchasing LiveUp membership,
As for Netflix, you might want to take note that a Singapore-registered account can also access the US catalogue via VPN. Don’t think the country of registration/payment actually makes a difference for catalogue access.
I can’t say I have hard evidence on the contrary, so you may be right. I know that even if you have a US-registered account you will only be able to access the content available in your country. Mad Men’s last season episodes are not licensed in the UK for example so if Netflix thinks you are there, the country of your account won’t matter.
I’ve been one of the early subscribers of LiveUp and I would rate it as somewhere between “oftentimes decent” to “usually mediocre”. Here’s why, 1. I use Grab / Uber interchangeably based on whichever offers me a better fare. Grab offers me points while Uber lets me ride my 10th one for free (got about $50 in value from 5 such rides) 2. I have had subscriptions with both Netflix and Prime Video for about a year now, their limited catalogue not withstanding. LiveUp got me 6 months of viewing for free ($84 in value) 3. I shop wherever the… Read more »
these are good points. I’m just wondering how long they’ll keep it at $29. Presumably they want to hit some sort of critical mass in terms of users or partners before they jack up the price to $60. But I just can’t see them doubling the price without adding any new benefits..
I usually perform some mental gymnastics, with Grabrewards basically giving a 4% rebate versus Uber Liveup VIP giving a $1 off per ride ($10 off for 10th ride).
What I like about grab rewards is that it’s non binary. If I take 9 rides with uber I get nothing (reward only kicks in with the 10th ride) but if I take 9 rides with grab I a cure 9 rides worth of rewards
the uber VIP is a gimmick. you have a smaller pool of drivers to get matched with, they’re equally as retarded as the others – most just haven’t been dinged with 1 star yet
Got to agree with you. Usually the VIP drivers are very far away. I’ll usually get the normal ride even with this VIP programme
Hi Aaron, I think Liveup Membership is good for people who frequently make purchases on Redmart and Lazada. I am one of them and I think it is god-sent for parents with young children. I buy grocery from Redmart once every one or two weeks, and buy diapers from Lazada at least once every month. Therefore, I can use the 5% rebates within the 30 days of expiry. In addition to the Liveup rebates of 5%, I pay using Citibank Cash Back on Redmart for 8% cash rebate. For Lazada, I use Shopback to earn cashback (rebates depends on the… Read more »
hey aaron, now that most people who signed up for liveup are having their 1 year membership expiring soon, do you know if the same price / same benefits (like free netflix) will apply to renewals?
Upcoming changes and it is generally negative:
https://www.asiaone.com/digital/come-july-liveup-members-will-no-longer-enjoy-free-delivery-lazada-orders