Small Business Owners: "Kakao's Win-Win Plan Is Just a Face-Saving Move... They Must Declare a Halt to Entering Neighborhood Markets"

"Kakao Taxi Call Platform Market Monopoly"
(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Baek Seung-ryeol = More than 9 out of 10 taxi drivers nationwide have joined the Kakao Taxi call service, indicating that the market is virtually monopolized. According to data received from Kakao Mobility by Kim Sang-hoon, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee (People Power Party), as of early August, the total number of taxi drivers registered on the taxi call platform 'KakaoT' was 226,154. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (submitted by the National Taxi Transport Business Association Federation) reported that the total number of registered taxis nationwide was 243,709 as of the end of June. Assuming there was little change in the number of taxi drivers over about a month, the KakaoT registration rate reached 92.8%. The photo shows Kakao Taxis parked at the parking lot of a corporate taxi company in Seoul, most of which are registered with Kakao Taxi, ready to go out for operation on this day. 2021.9.14
Photo by srbaek@yna.co.kr
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[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise Associations (KFMEA) strongly criticized the win-win plan announced by Kim Beom-su, Chairman of Kakao.

On the 16th, KFMEA stated in a commentary, "(The win-win plan) is merely a face-saving measure to temporarily evade the ongoing sanction procedures by the Fair Trade Commission against Chairman Kim Beom-su and the increasing public demand for his summons as a witness at the National Assembly audit." They added, "It appears that Kakao, which is invading local markets like an octopus and centipede beyond just the designated areas such as the designated driver market and hair salons, hastily announced this plan to quell immediate public opinion."

KFMEA holds the view that Kakao's business withdrawal was limited to specific areas. They pointed out, "The services concretely withdrawn are only one or two among Kakao Mobility's key services such as snack and salad delivery brokerage," and "The highly controversial designated driver market and Kakao Hairshop were not even mentioned." They further stated, "Kakao has not abandoned its ambition to invade local markets just because it closed one or two businesses," adding, "Rather, this is a declaration of war to actively target markets like designated drivers and hair salons, which are being aggressively invaded under the pretext of scapegoating."

They also criticized the 300 billion KRW scale win-win fund for lacking specificity. KFMEA said, "There is no concrete plan on how the 300 billion KRW mentioned by Kakao will be utilized," and "Above all, since this can only be seen as a price for the unlimited invasion of local markets, it cannot be accepted as a sincere intention."

They emphasized the necessity of the Online Platform Fairness Act. KFMEA argued, "The government and the National Assembly must immediately enact the pending Online Platform Fairness Act to establish measures that can control the tyranny of big tech companies."

Furthermore, they expressed strong regret once again toward Kakao for unilaterally announcing the win-win plan without consulting small business organizations, stating, "We will form an Online Platform Fairness Committee within KFMEA to prevent indiscriminate invasion of local markets by big tech platform companies including Kakao."

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