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South Korea ’s antimonopoly guard dog has fin Kakao Mobility , the ride - hail unit of Korean tech firm Kakao , $ 10.5 million ( KRW 15.1 billion ) for fix rival ’ entree to its taxi app — lowering the penaltyfrom an initial mulct of $ 50.3 million(KRW 72.4 billion ) , as the earlier authority was based on an overestimated calculation of the companionship ’s operating profits .
Separately , in November , the Financial Services Commissionfined the taxi - hail firm $ 2.47 million ( KRW 3.4 billion)for suspect accounting fraud , refer the event to the prosecuting officer for further probe .
Kakao Mobility offers general drive - hailing services via its Kakao T app and dealership - hail services under its subsidiary brand , “ Kakao T Blue , ” also within the same app .
Franchise taxis , including Uber and local peer TADA , can employ Kakao ’s platform since general taxi - hailing is a brokerage firm inspection and repair that intermediary leave to all driver on the platform under South Korea ’s Passenger Transport Service Act . dealership taxis body of work with political platform - based fare provider such as Uber to provide specialized hailing services as an alternative to even hailing — such as differentiating on gondola timber , say , or pickup time .
Kakao Mobility defend the turgid mart share in the country ’s taxicab - hail market , capture a 96 % market share as of 2022 , allot toa statementby the Korea Fair Trade Commission ( KFTC ) in October . As of October , Kakao Mobility , also known as Kakao Taxi , remain the food market drawing card — with 13.2 million monthly fighting users — while rivals Uber , TADA , and I’M had 700,000 , 6,400 , and 5,800 MAUs , severally , per a local media report .
Last calendar month , the KFTC stated that Kakao Mobility had demanded enfranchisement competitors , such as Banban , Macaron Taxi , TADA , andUber Taxi ( formerly know as UT ) , either pay a fee for their drivers ’ accession to the Kakao T app or contract partnership accord permit Kakao Mobility to roll up their functional data , including sensitive business info such as driver inside information . If they refused , enfranchisement driver who use Kakao ’s weapons platform would be halt from using the Kakao T app .
Uber and TADA did not have partnerships with Kakao Mobility , do their taxi drivers to block the use of its Kakao T app . Instead , Banban and Macaron Taxi partner with Kakao Mobility , grant to the KFTC ’s October statement . The partnership helped Kakao Mobility grow its marketshare from 51 % in 2020 to 79 % in 2022 , cement its market place ascendance .
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“ block [ enfranchisement hack from accessing calls on the Kakao T app ] is in reality done to downplay call duplicate between platform and enhance user convenience , ” exact J Choi , a interpreter at Kakao Mobility , in an emailed program line .
“ Kakao Mobility is fully committed to supporting the administration ’s opening to kick upstairs fair rival within the platform industry while at the same time pursuing administrative judicial proceeding to unambiguously demonstrate that no legal violation occurred , ” the statement added .
Kakao reported an improved operating net for the third quarter of this year in November , but concerns remain as the melioration came without sale increase . Furthermore , the party ’s new chat - base AI service , Kanana , which aim to launch a shut beta service next year , is receiving a mediocre market reception due to its special data allocation , per local medium reports .
In other recent news , Kakao ’s chairman and founder , Brian Kim , wasgranted bailin October , 100 days after being arrest for alleged involvement in stock manipulation .
