Ahn Cheol-soo: "Public App for Baemin Issues? ... Populism"

"Political Intervention Only Harms the Market"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the People’s Party, criticized the monopoly abuse of Baedal Minjok (Baemin) on the 10th and said that some local governments developing public apps is “an infringement on the market’s domain and populism by local governments trying to appeal to the public’s sentiment to create public apps.”

On Facebook that day, Ahn said, “The market and government each have their own domains and roles, and the public sector should intervene restrictively like a public good when the market cannot perform its function.”

He pointed out, “If the government intervenes for political purposes, it will fail and only negatively affect the market,” citing “Zero Pay in Seoul, which has repeatedly failed despite pouring in huge budgets, as a representative case.”

He added, “Even if Baemin has problems, trying to replace it with a public app raises doubts about its effectiveness in the market, and I am concerned that the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of many startup founders dreaming of platform unicorns may be discouraged.”

Ahn said, “There are many problems with Baemin’s commission rate adjustment. If Baemin abuses its monopoly position to gain excessive commission profits, strong sanctions under the Fair Trade Act should be imposed and corrected,” and added, “The transparency and authority of the Fair Trade Commission should be raised to the level of advanced countries, and it should be given the authority to split companies with severe monopoly damage.”

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