TapTechNews October 5th news, according to Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean antitrust regulator said on Wednesday local time that it has decided to fine Kakao Mobility Corp. 72.4 billion won (TapTechNews note: currently about 381 million yuan). The reason is that the company is suspected of requiring competing taxi franchise operators to sign a cooperation agreement and preventing them from using its taxi-hailing service if they refuse the proposal.
KakaoT is open to franchise and non-franchise taxis. As of 2022, its market share in the non-franchise taxi market reaches 97%. In order to increase its market share in the franchise taxi industry, Kakao launched the franchise service KakaoTBlue through its platform in 2019.
It is reported that the operator of KakaoT requires the four smaller competitors such as Uber, Banbantaxi, Macarontaxi and Tada to sign a cooperation agreement.
Although the cooperation agreement allows Kakao to collect business secrets and other sensitive information in real time, Banban and Macaron signed the contract, which led to Kakao the share in the franchise taxi market rising from 51% in 2020 to 79% in 2022. The regulator said in a press release: Because of this practice, most of its competitors have left the market. This move has hindered fair competition and affected the choice of service for taxi drivers and customers.