Kakao Mobility enters Laos under biz strategy for Southeast Asia

South Korea's Kakao Mobility has entered Laos under a plan to use the country as a base for the transportation company's operations in Southeast Asia.

Kakao Mobility on Tuesday said it will sign a business agreement with the Lao company LVMC Holdings and build a local service platform in Laos.

As the largest private company in Laos, LVMC Holdings handles mobility-related sectors such as the production and sales of cars and motorcycles, also doing business in Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

"Laos is Southeast Asia's only landlocked country and borders several neighbors like Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Its high potential as an overland trade hub makes it suitable as a base for competition in the Southeast Asian market," said Kakao Mobility.

"Laos is a country with enough electrical energy to export electricity. It will also play the role of test bed for services related to electric vehicles," the company added.

Within this year, Kakao Mobility will build a service platform exclusively for Laos and launch services there through localization of technology infrastructure. Previously offering overseas service for Koreans traveling abroad, the company for the first time will provide service for locals rather than overseas roaming.

When Korean users visit other countries such as Japan, they can call a taxi through the cab-hailing Kakao T that they downloaded back home.

"We will achieve platform globalization by directly applying technology infrastructure locally," said Ahn Kyu-jin, executive vice president of Kakao Mobility's Business Division.

Write to Han-Gyeol Seon at always@hankyung.com