Determination Toward the 'Last Mile'... Tmap Mobility's 'Valet Parking Experiment'

On-Demand Valet Parking Service
Collaboration with Majimak Samshipbun
Decision on Implementation After Testing

Mobility Market Expected to Grow by 2.8 Trillion Won
Coexistence with Related Industries Remains a Challenge

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] “Capture the last step of walking to the destination (last mile).” T map Mobility has partnered with an urban valet parking service specialized startup to experiment with a ‘parking proxy’ service. The focus is on coexistence to avoid repeating the mistakes of existing platform industries, which faced social criticism for excessive commission fees and sprawling expansion into related industries.

Collaboration with a Newly Established Valet Parking Specialized Startup

According to related industries on the 14th, T map Mobility plans to conduct a beta test within the year in collaboration with ‘Last 30 Minutes,’ which operates ‘Itcha.’ A T map Mobility official stated, "This is a market experiment for testing purposes, and there is no official launch plan yet," adding, "Decisions regarding official adoption will be made after the test."

Itcha provides an on-demand parking proxy service based on a mobile application. Although the official service started in June this year, the app has surpassed 110,000 downloads. When a destination is set, a parking agent comes to the location, takes the car, and returns it at the desired time. Currently, the service is limited to seven areas in Seoul, including Hongdae, Gangnam, Yeouido, and Jongno, but the target areas will gradually expand.

The consideration for services for drivers has led to new service experiments. Led by CEO Lee Jong-ho, T map Mobility has focused on implementing ‘Mobility as a Service (MaaS)’ since before its spin-off from SK Telecom last year. MaaS addresses various mobility demands for people on a single platform, which is a common theme in the recent mobility market.

Domestic Mobility Market Growing at an Average Annual Rate of 27%

As the domestic mobility market continues its high growth trend, future prospects are bright. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation, the size of the domestic smart mobility market is expected to grow rapidly from 682 billion KRW in 2017 to 2.863 trillion KRW in 2023. The average annual growth rate is as steep as 27%. While taxi-hailing services are the core, the market covers diverse areas from micro-mobility such as shared bicycles and kickboards to parking lots. In the future, autonomous vehicles and flying cars are expected to be included in the mobility domain.

However, the issue of coexistence with related industries faced by platform companies is an unavoidable challenge for the mobility industry as well. A representative example is Kakao Mobility, which has been criticized for taking commissions as high as 20% from taxi drivers and expanding into related markets such as rental cars and designated driver services. The paid membership fee of 99,000 KRW per month for taxi drivers triggered backlash, leading Kakao Chairman Kim Beom-su to personally attend a national audit and apologize amid public criticism.

T map Mobility plans to differentiate itself by focusing on coexistence and not repeating the mistakes of existing companies. For example, earlier this month, it signed a coexistence agreement with the Korea Parking Equipment Industry Cooperative to establish a cooperative system among platform companies and equipment manufacturers. In contrast, Kakao Mobility is embroiled in controversy for continuously expanding directly operated parking lots and encroaching on the business of parking software developers.

Experts point out that fundamental consideration of coexistence is necessary for the sustainability of the platform ecosystem. Professor Shin Min-soo of Hanyang University’s Department of Business Administration said, "When Amazon in the U.S. announced it would start a one-stop shopping service, if there were no existing industries or products initially, platforms could not have emerged," adding, "Platforms are inherently two-sided or multi-sided markets, so coexistence with the relevant industries is essential."

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