Kakao Mobility looks abroad to expand taxi services

South Korea’s Kakao Mobility Corp. is expanding overseas services in the face of criticism over its business practices, including the alleged abuse of its monopolistic position.

The ride-hailing app operator said on Friday it will launch taxi services in Australia, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan from Nov. 30.

Users of the Kakao T app needs to scroll to the travel tab in the app, select the overseas car call icon, enter the departure and arrival points in Korean, select a transportation method and then click the call button.

Service fees will vary by country, depending on their taxi fare systems.

In addition, Kakao Mobility will begin services in the US, the world's largest mobility market, next month, in collaboration with Lyft, a partner company of the global mobility platform Splyt.

That will increase the number of countries where it operates to 37, including Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia.

In March of this year, Kakao acquired Splyt, a UK riding-hailing startup, in its first cross-border deal.

It is now seeking to buy about an 80% stake in FreeNow, Europe’s largest taxi platform, within the year.

Kakao is said to have completed due diligence on FreeNow in the past two months and submitted a preliminary bid.

"We will grow beyond the domestic leading platform to become a truly global mobility service," Alex Ryu, chief executive of Kakao Mobility, said in a statement.

However, its overseas growth could be hindered by legal issues surrounding the mobility app and its parent Kakao Corp., as well as its founder and chairman of the Kakao Corp. board Kim Beom-soo.

The 13-year-old group is under regulatory and antitrust probes, while regulators are strengthening rules for mobile platforms.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at 2juhyun@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.