Blue-collar revolution: How Ayasan became Asia's fastest-growing home services platform with 1M+ users

The Japanese-quality service provider has doubled its growth rate over two years and is eyeing expansion to 15 locations across nine countries by 2025

Kotaro Ise's vision of a "blue-collar revolution" is rapidly becoming reality across Southeast Asia

While most tech platforms focus on white-collar workers, Ayasan Holdings is betting big on Asia's blue-collar workforce – and the numbers suggest they're onto something major.

The home services platform, which operates across five countries with over 100,000 registered workers and one million customers in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos, has achieved remarkable 200% month-over-month growth in Thailand's tourist hotspots of Phuket and Pattaya since launching there in 2024.

From Disney to domestic services

Founded in 2013 by Kotaro Ise after stints at Walt Disney and Marriott International, Ayasan started with a simple premise: bring Japanese-quality standards to Asia's fragmented home services market. What began as a cleaning service has evolved into what Ise calls the region's answer to becoming "the Grab of home services" – but with bigger ambitions.

"We're not just aiming to be a home services platform," explains Ise, who serves as CEO of the Yokohama and Bangkok-headquartered company. "We want to become Asia's largest blue-collar talent platform."

The company now operates nine locations across Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, and Vietnam, with 500 employees facilitating everything from house cleaning to elderly care through its "Ayasan Cares" brand.

Riding the $150B wave

Ayasan's expansion comes at a perfect time. The Southeast Asian home services market is valued at $150 billion, with cleaning services growing at 15% annually and the babysitting sector reaching $30 billion. The company has positioned itself to capture this growth through a combination of Japanese quality standards, localized teams, and six years of AI technology integration.

The platform's success with corporate clients is equally impressive, serving over 1,000 businesses including international brands like FedEx, Coach, and Lululemon, alongside Japanese corporations such as Canon and JCB.

"We're seeing particularly strong demand from hotels and restaurants due to the blue-collar labor shortage," Ise notes, pointing to a trend that could accelerate the company's growth trajectory.

Cross-border ambitions

What sets Ayasan apart from regional competitors is its cross-border vision. The platform is developing services to connect workers across countries – for instance, matching Thai job seekers with Japanese employers.

"I believe Asia will become one connected market," Ise predicts. "We're positioning ourselves to be number one in this labor market when that happens."

This international approach extends to the company's rapid expansion into tourist destinations. After success in Phuket and Pattaya, Ayasan plans to establish offices in Bali, Indonesia, and Da Nang, Vietnam, targeting the growing demand for short-term babysitting and elderly care services among international visitors.

The AI-resistant workforce

Ise's "blue-collar revolution" thesis rests on a compelling argument: these jobs are among the most resistant to AI automation. While artificial intelligence transforms white-collar work, tasks requiring physical presence and human touch – cleaning, childcare, elderly assistance – remain fundamentally human.

"In the AI era, the value of blue-collar work related to people's daily lives is irreplaceable," Ise emphasizes. "We're creating a true blue-collar talent revolution."

Looking ahead, the company is even preparing for a future with humanoid robots, planning what Ise playfully calls "Terminator services" – hybrid human-robot offerings that could define the next phase of service delivery.

Racing toward regional dominance

With plans to reach 15 locations across nine countries by the end of 2025, and further expansion into Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia planned for 2025-2026 to achieve 16 locations across nine countries, Ayasan is moving aggressively to establish market leadership and become "the Grab of home services" before larger tech giants take notice. The company's combination of proven demand, scalable technology, and first-mover advantage in the cross-border blue-collar space positions it as a potentially significant player in Asia's labor market transformation.

For a region grappling with aging populations, labor shortages, and rising service expectations, Ayasan's model suggests that the future of work might not just be about replacing humans with technology – but about making human work more valuable, connected, and efficient across borders.

Ayasan Holdings operates from dual headquarters in Yokohama, Japan and Bangkok, Thailand. The company can be reached at [email protected] or through their websites https://www.ayasan-service.com/en and https://ayasan.jp