NewsPress Release
March 13, 2018
Kakao Mobility Holds 2018 Media Day
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Kakao Mobility, a mobility arm of South Korea's top mobile messaging app service provider Kakao, organized today 'Kakao Mobility Media Day 2018' in The Plaza Seoul to share key accomplishments of previous years and details about its roadmap to spur mobility innovations.
Over the past years, Kakao Mobility has post meaningful figures in its mobility services. With 400 million cumulative rides, Kakao T Taxi is currently used by over 96% or 240,000 cab drivers in Korea. The cab-calling service has effectively reshaped the notion of taxis from a mode of transportation that has to be flagged down by hand, into one that can be hailed by a simple tap on smartphones, providing increased comfort and safety to passengers. Kakao T Driver, now in operation for two years, has also enjoyed steady growth in the user base and recently exceeded 14 million cases of usage on a cumulative basis with 3.4 million subscribers. Kakao's mobile navigation app Kakao T Navi has attracted 12 million users as well.
Kakao Mobility's data suggests that mobile cab hailing requests via increased 2.5 times while the number of active cab drivers grew by a mere 1.4-fold for the last two years. For instance, Kakao Mobility saw approximately 230,000 calls nationwide for one hour from 8 am on December 20, 2017, but the number of taxis available for order during the time (excluding occupied taxis) stood at about 26,000, falling far short of demand. In other words, over 80% of hailing requests went unfulfilled. Unmet passenger demand would surge dramatically in case of bad weather, large-scale concerts, or other special occasions.
To narrow the chronic supply-demand gap, Kakao Mobility sets to enhance hailing features by introducing additional hailing options, namely Priority Call and Immediate Dispatch, and by incentivizing partner cab drivers. Priority Call is a deep learning-based ride-hailing option that increases the likelihood of matching passengers and cab drivers further. Immediate Dispatch is an option that instantly matches passengers with nearby empty taxis. Kakao Mobility also plans to introduce 'point system' that the company offers points convertible to cash later to cab drivers on the basis of drivers' performance and evaluations they get from users. By connecting the users willing to pay more with taxi drivers willing to drive more, Kakao Mobility believes that the actual cab supply can increase without placing additional vehicles on the already crowded city streets. Users will have the liberty to use either new additional features or the existing free cab-hailing option. Moreover, Kakao Mobility also plans to integrate a carpooling service of Luxi, a major local carpooling service provider the company acquired in February this year, into its mobility platform to better meet the taxi demand during peak hours. In close cooperation with the local taxi and carpool industry, Kakao Mobility will forge ways to maximize the synergy between the carpooling service and its existing mobility services.
The second goal is to make sure that its B2B mobility business takes hold this year. Kakao Mobility sought to propel its B2B segment by launching Kakao T for business recently. Kakao T for business facilitates the use of cabs for business purposes (i.e. business trips) for a certain commission. The company estimates that business travels account for roughly 15% of total taxi demands. Kakao T for business will expand its service range from taxi-hailing to chauffeur service and luxurious taxi service.
The third goal is to reinforce Kakao Mobility's overseas footprint. Kakao Mobility is set to provide the cab-hailing service across the border: through a partnership with its Japanese counterpart Japan Taxi, Kakao T and Japan Taxi will be synced from the second half of this year, meaning that Kakao T users can use their app to call cabs in Japan while Japan Taxi users can also hail taxis with their app in Korea. Moreover, through easi6 it invested in December 2017, Kakao Mobility seeks to link Korean tourists visiting Southeast Asia countries including Hong Kong and Taiwan to the local transportation service companies within this year.
Kakao Mobility is also poised to create an ecosystem of autonomous driving in partnership with Mars Auto, an AI-based autonomous driving software company Kakao Mobility recently made an investment in. At the same time, investment and acquisitions of mobility startups will continue. Since last year, Kakao Mobility has boldly invested in, or acquired, a number of mobility startups, namely Mars Auto, limousine service operator easi6 and carpooling startup Luxi.
Kakao Mobility CEO John Jung said, "What we are trying to do is to make our daily travel time which averages 2 hours faster, safer and more convenient. On the basis of connectivity and sharing, we will continue to make dedicated efforts to introduce innovative mobility services for better user experience.
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About Kakao Mobility
Kakao Mobility is South Korea's leading mobility service provider spun off from Kakao in August 2017. Under the philosophy of "Make every moment of users' journey faster, safer and more convenient", Kakao Mobility operates Kakao T, the mobility app for cab-hailing, navigation, parking and chauffeur service. In June 2017, Kakao Mobility attracted $461 million (KRW 500 billion) investment via a strategic partnership with a consortium led by a U.S. private equity fund TPG.
About Kakao
Kakao, better known as South Korea's largest mobile messaging app operator, is an integrated mobile lifestyle platform company with services including mobile messaging (Kakao Talk), gaming (Kakao Games), music (Melon), e-mail (Daum Mail), search (Daum Search), news (Daum News), and more. With the mission of "Connect Everything", Kakao is dedicated to creating an ecosystem of connectivity where people can stay connected with family and friends by sharing what matters to them. For more, please visit at www.kakaocorp.com.
Press Contact
Jeff Kim
Communications Manager
jeff.kim@kakaocorp.com
+82-02-6718-2889
Over the past years, Kakao Mobility has post meaningful figures in its mobility services. With 400 million cumulative rides, Kakao T Taxi is currently used by over 96% or 240,000 cab drivers in Korea. The cab-calling service has effectively reshaped the notion of taxis from a mode of transportation that has to be flagged down by hand, into one that can be hailed by a simple tap on smartphones, providing increased comfort and safety to passengers. Kakao T Driver, now in operation for two years, has also enjoyed steady growth in the user base and recently exceeded 14 million cases of usage on a cumulative basis with 3.4 million subscribers. Kakao's mobile navigation app Kakao T Navi has attracted 12 million users as well.
Kakao Mobility's data suggests that mobile cab hailing requests via increased 2.5 times while the number of active cab drivers grew by a mere 1.4-fold for the last two years. For instance, Kakao Mobility saw approximately 230,000 calls nationwide for one hour from 8 am on December 20, 2017, but the number of taxis available for order during the time (excluding occupied taxis) stood at about 26,000, falling far short of demand. In other words, over 80% of hailing requests went unfulfilled. Unmet passenger demand would surge dramatically in case of bad weather, large-scale concerts, or other special occasions.
To narrow the chronic supply-demand gap, Kakao Mobility sets to enhance hailing features by introducing additional hailing options, namely Priority Call and Immediate Dispatch, and by incentivizing partner cab drivers. Priority Call is a deep learning-based ride-hailing option that increases the likelihood of matching passengers and cab drivers further. Immediate Dispatch is an option that instantly matches passengers with nearby empty taxis. Kakao Mobility also plans to introduce 'point system' that the company offers points convertible to cash later to cab drivers on the basis of drivers' performance and evaluations they get from users. By connecting the users willing to pay more with taxi drivers willing to drive more, Kakao Mobility believes that the actual cab supply can increase without placing additional vehicles on the already crowded city streets. Users will have the liberty to use either new additional features or the existing free cab-hailing option. Moreover, Kakao Mobility also plans to integrate a carpooling service of Luxi, a major local carpooling service provider the company acquired in February this year, into its mobility platform to better meet the taxi demand during peak hours. In close cooperation with the local taxi and carpool industry, Kakao Mobility will forge ways to maximize the synergy between the carpooling service and its existing mobility services.
The second goal is to make sure that its B2B mobility business takes hold this year. Kakao Mobility sought to propel its B2B segment by launching Kakao T for business recently. Kakao T for business facilitates the use of cabs for business purposes (i.e. business trips) for a certain commission. The company estimates that business travels account for roughly 15% of total taxi demands. Kakao T for business will expand its service range from taxi-hailing to chauffeur service and luxurious taxi service.
The third goal is to reinforce Kakao Mobility's overseas footprint. Kakao Mobility is set to provide the cab-hailing service across the border: through a partnership with its Japanese counterpart Japan Taxi, Kakao T and Japan Taxi will be synced from the second half of this year, meaning that Kakao T users can use their app to call cabs in Japan while Japan Taxi users can also hail taxis with their app in Korea. Moreover, through easi6 it invested in December 2017, Kakao Mobility seeks to link Korean tourists visiting Southeast Asia countries including Hong Kong and Taiwan to the local transportation service companies within this year.
Kakao Mobility is also poised to create an ecosystem of autonomous driving in partnership with Mars Auto, an AI-based autonomous driving software company Kakao Mobility recently made an investment in. At the same time, investment and acquisitions of mobility startups will continue. Since last year, Kakao Mobility has boldly invested in, or acquired, a number of mobility startups, namely Mars Auto, limousine service operator easi6 and carpooling startup Luxi.
Kakao Mobility CEO John Jung said, "What we are trying to do is to make our daily travel time which averages 2 hours faster, safer and more convenient. On the basis of connectivity and sharing, we will continue to make dedicated efforts to introduce innovative mobility services for better user experience.
###
About Kakao Mobility
Kakao Mobility is South Korea's leading mobility service provider spun off from Kakao in August 2017. Under the philosophy of "Make every moment of users' journey faster, safer and more convenient", Kakao Mobility operates Kakao T, the mobility app for cab-hailing, navigation, parking and chauffeur service. In June 2017, Kakao Mobility attracted $461 million (KRW 500 billion) investment via a strategic partnership with a consortium led by a U.S. private equity fund TPG.
About Kakao
Kakao, better known as South Korea's largest mobile messaging app operator, is an integrated mobile lifestyle platform company with services including mobile messaging (Kakao Talk), gaming (Kakao Games), music (Melon), e-mail (Daum Mail), search (Daum Search), news (Daum News), and more. With the mission of "Connect Everything", Kakao is dedicated to creating an ecosystem of connectivity where people can stay connected with family and friends by sharing what matters to them. For more, please visit at www.kakaocorp.com.
Press Contact
Jeff Kim
Communications Manager
jeff.kim@kakaocorp.com
+82-02-6718-2889
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