After seeing double-digit development in South Korea, Uber Applied sciences has introduced a strategic plan to double down within the nation — immediately difficult market chief Kakao Mobility, the ride-hailing unit majority-owned by South Korean messaging and tech big Kakao.
Uber chief govt officer Dara Khosrowshahi outlined the plans in a press convention in Seoul, the place he additionally kicked off a marketing campaign to develop the corporate’s pool of drivers within the nation.
That may have to be a serious effort. At the moment Korea’s ride-hailing trade is dominated by Kakao Taxi, Kakao Mobility’s shopper service, with greater than 23 million registered customers and a 98% market share, per Statista.
Khosrowshahi additionally added that Uber plans to broaden its partnerships with Korean automobile know-how corporations, simply because it has carried out in different markets.
It’s been particularly lively on that entrance not too long ago. Final week, Cruise, Normal Motors’s self-driving subsidiary, signed a multi-year partnership with Uber to convey its robotaxis to the ride-hailing platform in 2025. Uber introduced this week it had made a strategic funding in Wayve, a U.Okay.-based startup that develops software program for autonomous driving. Uber already works with Korea’s Hyundai in different markets like Europe.
Uber ramping up in South Korea is the most recent chapter within the drama that’s the nation’s ride-hailing market.
Though Uber has gained notoriety around the globe for the way it has head-butted with regulators, in South Korea, extra not too long ago it has been the home-grown dominant participant that has had that doubtful honor.
The nation’s antitrust watchdog Truthful Commerce Fee fined Kakao Mobility $20 million for manipulating its algorithms to favor its personal taxi franchise in February 2023. Nevertheless, it didn’t file a grievance with the prosecution then.
However in December final yr, South Korean authorities requested the antitrust regulator to file a grievance towards Kakao Mobility for algorithm manipulation favoring its personal cabs, a repeat of the difficulty in February 2023. (For background, the Kakao app lets each franchise and non-franchise taxis decide up experience requests. Even when non-franchise taxis are nearer, franchise taxis can nonetheless obtain requests from shoppers.)
Uber has not escaped controversy within the nation.
Uber opened for enterprise in South Korea a decade in the past, and shortly after that, taxi drivers started to prepare protests over what they noticed as a risk to their livelihood. Seoul metropolis authorities finally introduced it might ban the service in late 2013.
It started these steps months later — though Uber didn’t utterly exit the market. In 2020, it arrange a three way partnership with TMAP Mobility, a ride-hailing unit of native service SK Telecom, to make a comeback within the nation. The next yr, the JV firm, known as UT, launched its taxi-hailing service.
Then, whereas nonetheless remaining a JV, that rebranded as Uber Taxi this March.
As a minor participant with seemingly lower than 10% of the market whenever you rely up different hopefuls, Uber has discovered itself the underdog within the nation, however development is coming at a quick clip in the meanwhile. Uber this week stated the variety of passengers elevated by virtually 80% within the first half of 2024, in comparison with the identical interval final yr. For the reason that rebranding, there has additionally been a double improve in utilization from worldwide vacationers.