Tada, Freed from 'Illegal Sticker' Shackles, Prepares to Accelerate Again

Tada Premium Subscription Inquiries Increase Sixfold... Tada Subscribers Also Quadruple
However, Business Expansion Plans Will Be Decided After Resolving National Assembly Amendment Issues

Lee Jae-woong, CEO of Socar (right), and Park Jae-wook, CEO of VCNC / Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] After being acquitted in court and removing the 'illegal sticker,' Tada is preparing to accelerate again. The 11-passenger van call service 'Tada Basic' is expected to expand its business to include the premium taxi call service 'Tada Premium.'

Lee Jae-woong, CEO of Socar, stated on his Facebook on the 22nd, "About 20% of Tada drivers are former corporate taxi drivers who have switched jobs," adding, "Many personal taxi drivers with five years of accident-free records are interested in joining Tada Premium, where they can earn up to 100 million KRW annually."

Unlike Tada Basic, which operates on a rental car basis without a taxi license, Tada Premium collaborates with drivers holding taxi licenses to operate as premium taxis. After CEO Lee and Park Jae-wook, CEO of VCNC, were acquitted on the 19th, inquiries from taxi drivers about joining Tada Premium surged significantly. According to Tada, as of the 19th, the number of inquiries about Tada Premium increased about sixfold compared to the daily average.

Along with this, the number of members joining Tada is also rapidly increasing. As of the 19th, the day the acquittal was announced, the number of new members registered was about four times the daily average this year, marking the highest number so far this year. Currently, approximately 1.7 million members have joined Tada.

Tada plans to leverage this momentum to accelerate business expansion and attract additional investment. After the acquittal, CEO Lee emphasized, "Our colleagues working at Tada are now focusing more on how to better reward drivers, how to expand assistance for people with disabilities, and how to increase the income of premium taxi drivers." Tada has already announced plans to become independent from Socar in April and to aggressively attract investment to become a unicorn (a startup valued at over 1 trillion KRW).

However, the amendment to the Passenger Transport Service Act, known as the 'Tada Ban Act,' is still pending in the National Assembly, so Tada cannot yet rush into business expansion. The amendment, proposed by Park Hong-geun of the Democratic Party in October last year, is expected to be discussed soon by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The amendment stipulates that for renting vans with 11 to 15 seats, driver dispatch is only allowed if rented for tourism purposes for six hours or more, or if the return location is an airport or port. If the amendment passes the plenary session, the current Tada service would become impossible in South Korea.

Although there are predictions that the acquittal will weaken the amendment's momentum, with the general election approaching, lawmakers mindful of taxi industry votes may push for the bill's passage. A Tada official stated, "After the court acquittal, inquiries about Tada and Tada Premium memberships have greatly increased, but since the National Assembly has not yet decided on the amendment, specific business expansion plans such as increasing the number of vehicles will be determined after the amendment issue is resolved."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.