Kakao Mobility Advocates Coexistence: "Adding Technology to Realize a Long-Term Cooperative Ecosystem"

Kakao Mobility will continue to focus on ‘win-win’ next year as it did this year. Kakao Mobility plans to create a virtuous cycle that connects technology to services and industries, leading to benefits for the sector.

According to Kakao Mobility on the 28th, since announcing the ‘Social Responsibility Enhancement Plan’ last September, it has been focusing on win-win policies. The pro-membership fee for taxi drivers was reduced from 99,000 KRW to 39,000 KRW per month, and the paid taxi call service, Smart Call, was completely abolished. It also withdrew from flower, snack, and salad delivery brokerage services. To share the hardships of designated driver drivers who were hit hard by COVID-19, the company expanded the ‘variable commission system,’ which applies commissions ranging from 0 to 20%, nationwide.

Since October, Kakao Mobility has been conducting collective bargaining with the National Designated Driver Labor Union. The company plans to strengthen social responsibility by engaging with the union’s negotiation demands for mutual growth with platform workers. It has also signed agreements with franchise taxi operators in various regions including Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, Incheon, and Daejeon.

The company explained that it will prioritize ‘mutual growth’ when preparing new services in the future. It is approaching this from a long-term perspective, not only gathering opinions from existing industry stakeholders but also incorporating advanced technology for industry growth. A Kakao Mobility official said, "We are helping small and medium-sized companies that had difficulty operating by connecting them with Kakao T users to generate revenue, and proposing ways to improve operational efficiency through technology integration."

For rental car services, Kakao Mobility signed business agreements with the Korea Rent-a-Car Business Association Federation and regional associations in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon. It continues efforts to help generate demand for small and medium-sized companies in a market traditionally dominated by large companies and to improve operational efficiency. It is also cooperating with startups that possess excellent technology to support commercialization and technological advancement. The company launched the ‘KM Autonomous Driving Alliance’ to establish a cooperative system in the autonomous driving field.

Kakao Mobility has decided to promote the growth of the market itself to sustain long-term mutual growth. This is because it can attract significant demand to the existing industry through technology and help workers generate revenue through systems that improve work efficiency. The company is leading technological advancement in the high-definition map (HD map) field and the global urban air mobility (UAM) sector, and is also advancing ‘platooning technology,’ an autonomous cooperative driving technology where large freight trucks travel in groups.

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