Carpool has taxi drivers all revved up
Seoul – Tens of thousands of South Korean taxi drivers held a rally yesterday in Seoul, the capital, saying a carpooling service planned by the operator of the country’s top chat app would threaten their livelihoods.
It was the latest challenge to ride-sharing services in South Korea, which has one of the world’s highest smartphone penetration rates, with nearly half its population of about 51 million living in the Seoul metropolitan area.
Backlash from taxi drivers and government regulations in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy have hampered new transport services launched by US-based Uber and domestic startups.
Protesters chanted slogans, waved flags and held up placards with slogans such as, “Let’s crush the carpooling industry which ignores the taxi industry”, and “Illegal business carpool app out”.
A carpooling service would put his job at risk, said one driver, Lee Sun-joo, who has 30 years of experience but works 12-hour days to earn 2 million won (R24 000) every month. “The taxi industry will be long gone at the end.”
On Tuesday, Kakao Mobility, a unit of chat app operator Kakao Corp, started recruiting drivers, after having acquired domestic carpool startup Luxi.
Kakao said it would run the service only during commuting hours to offset a shortage of taxis.