MANILA - American ride-hailing app Arcade City said it would reenter the Philippines in January to compete with Grab and Angkas.

"Though our new version 4 mobile app will be available worldwide on January 1st, we will be making a special push into the Philippines for both car and motorbike transportation," the company said.

Arcade City bills itself as a "decentralized" and "peer-to-peer" ride-sharing platform, where drivers and passengers can negotiate fares themselves. This compares to platforms like Grab and Angkas where fares are set by the app itself based on guidelines from transport regulators.

Drivers and motorcycle riders will get to keep 100 percent of the fares, Arcade City said.

The app first entered the Philippines in 2017, but was blocked from operating by regulators who were then still drafting guidelines for ride-sharing services.

Arcade City said that of more than 35,000 users of its previous app versions, more than two-thirds were from the Philippines.