Seoul, Korea – South Korea’s taxi-hailing company Kakao Mobility, has announced its partnership with global mobility platform provider Splyt Technologies Ltd., to begin offering access to local ride-hailing services in seven Southeast Asian countries. Through the partnership, Kakao Mobility users will be able to book various transportation options in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Cambodia directly via the ‘Overseas Travel’ menu in the Kakao T app home screen.
Without any additional settings or logins, users can also book local taxis, private cars, and motorcycles while abroad through the Kakao T app. The technical integration has been developed by Splyt, the superapp enabler, while the transportation itself is provided by Grab, Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing platform.
The company said, users will also have various payment options via the Kakao T app. In addition to the automatic payment function that allows users to pay with a pre-registered Korean domestic card, the Kakao T app also supports mobile phone micropayments, eliminating the hassle of users preparing local currency in advance.
Splyt’s CEO, Philipp Mintchin, shared, “We are proud to expand our partnership with Kakao Mobility across more and more countries, enabling true mobility roaming via the Kakao T superapp. As travel resumes across Asia, our partnership will truly lead to a win-win-win situation – for Kakao Mobility, for Splyt, as well as for the traveller.”
To further simplify a user’s journey, the Kakao Mobility – Splyt partnership ensures that, when users call a vehicle from abroad, the Korean departure and arrival address automatically converts into their local language via real-time automatic translation messenger and current location photo transmission service.
Dong-Hoon Shin, head of Kakao Mobility MaaS Business Unit, commented, “This partnership is a cornerstone in Kakao Mobility’s aim to develop into a global mobility platform. Being able to provide a global roaming service allows Korean domestic travellers’ seamless mobility experience to expand into the overseas market.
“In addition, our advanced technologies for realising mobility services, such as our own map and routing engine, allow us to introduce various mobility services in a global market beyond simple means of transportation,” Shin added.
In 2018, Kakao Mobility introduced its first roaming service in Japan, and in 2019, it began providing the service in Vietnam. Kakao has chosen to launch now, as it expects significant increases in cross- border travel across Southeast Asia, with vaccination certificates now ensuring convenient and safe travels across the region.
