Kakao, a Korean company, which operates various in various sectors like community, entertainment, fashion, finance, transportation, videogames etc, acquires a start-up carpool app Luxi for $23.18 million on 14th February 2018.
Founded in July 2014, Luxi launched its carpool service in 2016, leading the small local carpool market.
“Luxi is a partner that deeply understands Kakao Mobility’s vision to make every travel moment fast, safe and convenient, Kakao Mobility is preparing various ways for Kakao T’s sustainable growth and help users,” said Kakao Mobility CEO Jung Joo-hwan
There is very slow growth of online taxi service in South Korea due to various restricted laws for taxi service.
They specially target the drunken people who want to go home early.
Need of Carpooling
Carpooling is allowed during commuting hours. Several companies provide carpool services in South Korea. However, because of laws and regulations, they had to do service for the limited time period. Kakao CEO said they will be with the rules. Uber also try to do service in South Korea because of regulations and protests from taxi companies, they hadn’t succeed in South Korea.
According to the data Kakao T receives 2.4 million taxi requests a day but only 20% to 30% are fulfilled. On December 18 they have received 230,000 in an hour, but only 26,000 taxi are available at that time. That means other 204,000 request were not met.
“We are very happy and proud to be with a great partner like Kakao Mobility, We will create services with the goal of supplementing public transportation segment while solving environmental issues, by introducing a safe and pleasant carpool culture,” said Luxi CEO Choi Ba-da.
