Kakao vows to push for deregulation
Kakao launched an alliance with local smart mobility enterprises and pledged to boost the industry and push for deregulation, the company said Thursday.
Kakao Mobility said it launched the “Smart Mobility Forum” with five car-sharing companies — Green Car, Luxi, Socar, e-Bus and Poolus — this week to jointly seek sustainable growth in the smart mobility industry here.
Established as a subsidiary in August this year, Kakao Mobility provides smart mobility services including mobile call taxi service Kakao Taxi, mobile chauffeur reservation service Kakao Driver and mobile navigation service Kakao Navi.
Kakao said the enterprises discussed the need for deregulation in the smart mobility industry as the forum’s first issue.
“The six member companies talked about the need for a regulation-free sandbox to foster the smart mobility industry here and about how to create synergy effects at the forum,” a Kakao official said. “They also agreed to deal with diverse social issues regarding transportation, shipping and road safety.”
To this end, the companies will research policies on transportation and traffic and propose them to policymakers through the forum. They also pledged to work with the government, academia, regional administrations and experts to hold regular meetings and jointly conduct political research.
Represented by car-sharing businesses, the smart mobility industry is changing how people use public and private transportation based on mobile, electric vehicle, autonomous driving and artificial intelligence technologies. Especially with heavy traffic jams, lack of parking spaces and rising oil prices, people in urban areas increasingly choose to use car-sharing services instead of purchasing their own cars.
Besides the deregulation issues, the forum plans to cooperate in providing new smart mobility services; open public discussion on legal and technical obstacles to introduce future mobility services such as autonomous driving; and establish a safe and sustainable smart city environment.
They also pledged to support promising startups in the smart mobility service sector, Kakao said.
Investment in Kakao
Kakao Mobility attracted a 500 billion won ($436.8 million) invest- ment from global private equity fund TPG Consortium earlier in June.
The mobile platform service operator, best-known for its mega-hit messaging app Kakao Talk, is set to receive the investment from TPG, in return for selling a 30 percent stake in Kakao Mobility.
The invested capital will be used to enhance infrastructure for Kakao Taxi and Kakao Driver services, according to the company. In particular, Kakao Taxi is the nation’s dominant taxi-calling app with 14.9 million users. More than 220,000 taxi drivers across the nation are registered with the service.
The investment comes at a critical time when the firm’s transportation services need to generate more revenue. The company has so far focused solely on raising its subscriber base by operating Kakao Taxi for free since its launch in March 2015.
Starting from the second half of the year, the company plans to add a series of new functions into the service. They include an enterprise-only ride-hailing service or an auto-payment service linked with its mobile payment app Kakao Pay.
Kakao started its business as a messenger service operator in 2010 when smartphones began to penetrate the nation.