Korea’s Kakao Mobility unveils global ride-hailing app to court Uber

Kakao Mobility Corp., South Korea’s top ride-hailing service provider, on Tuesday introduced the release of its global app, taking on global giant Uber Technologies Inc. by drawing customers in overseas markets and foreign visitors to Korea.

Kakao Mobility launched k.ride on app markets in 14 countries including South Korea, the US, Japan, China and Singapore, aiming to expand the service to 30 nations this year. The unit of South Korean mobile platform giant Kakao Corp. currently has partnerships with mobility service providers in some 30 countries.

“We are targeting the global market with platform model technology built up at home,” said Kakao Mobility CEO Alex Ryu. “We plan to provide customized, convenient service to people worldwide through k.ride.”

The company aims to integrate its mobility services around the world into k.ride and develop the app as a global platform, luring users by removing inconveniences caused by different languages and payment methods.

The Kakao T, its taxi-hailing app, has attracted 38 million users, mostly South Koreans, so far.

GLOBAL DIGITAL WALLET SERVICES TO BE INCLUDED

Kakao Mobility allows users without Kakao IDs to sign up for the k.ride with their mobile numbers after authentication through email or Google and Apple accounts. Customers can use credit cards issued overseas for automatic payments.

The company plans to make payments easier by introducing global digital wallet services in the app.

The k.ride app is available in four languages, Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese but provides automatic translation services for 100 languages,  including Thai and Arabic, for destination searches and chats with drivers.

Write to Joo-Waan Kim at kjwan@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.