Tens of thousands of taxi drivers strike against a new app from tech giant Kakao.
Tens of thousands of taxi drivers gathered in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square on October 18 for a one-day strike organized to protest a possible new carpool app from Korean tech giant Kakao. According to the Korean Taxi Workers’ Union, 60 percent of Seoul’s 100,000 taxi drivers joined the strike, alongside high participation in smaller protests organized in cities around the country.
The trouble started on October 16 when massive tech company Kakao announced it was recruiting drivers for a new ride-sharing app called Kakao T Carpool. Kakao has been operating Kakao Taxi in South Korea for the last several years, allowing passengers to call, reserve, and pay for a licensed taxi through an app. However, this new plan would allow passengers to avoid official taxis altogether — a move that the taxi industry says could completely destroy their ability to do business.
For their part, Kakao has insisted that they can work alongside taxi drivers, not undermine them. “The envisioned carpooling service will greatly alleviate the inconvenience riders suffer due to a supply-demand imbalance in taxis in the morning and late-night hours,” a Kakao spokesperson said . “It will not steal away jobs from taxi drivers, but rather work as a supplement to the taxi business.”
If Kakao’s plan comes to fruition, it will be the first major rideshare platform allowed in Korea since Uber effectively pulled out of the market in 2014 amid regulation concerns and a similar backlash from taxi drivers. After some back and forth in the legal sphere, in 2015 the Korean National Assembly passed a blanket ban on providing taxi services without a license, and on matching riders with drivers without a taxi license.
