Kakao Mobility officially takes off as new company

Kakao Mobility officially took off as an independent subsidiary of Kakao on Tuesday, bringing together the South Korean mobile messaging giant’s key transportation services under one company. 

The new subsidiary is set to oversee the expansion and monetization of Kakao’s key mobility services including the taxi-hailing app Kakao Taxi, chauffeur app Kakao Driver and mobile navigation app Kakao Navi. 

It also plans to partner with Korea’s parking space operators to launch a new parking space search and booking app called Kakao Parking by the fourth quarter of this year.

The establishment of Kakao Mobility comes as Kakao hopes to establish a concrete revenue model for its mobility services, most of which have managed to amass a large user base but have not found ways to generate stable profits, concerning investors.

The Kakao unit has secured 500 billion won ($433 million) from a consortium led by US-based private equity fund TPG to implement the new models and move forward its business.

“We hope to create new value in the broader mobility and transportation business and continue to innovate as Korea’s representative mobility company competing alongside major global players including Uber, Didi Chuxing and Grab,” said Kakao Mobility CEO Jung Joo-hwan.