April 20, 2024

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Kakao Mobility Chief Business Officer Ahn Kyu-jin (right) and Miki Taxi President Im Hong-soon sign memorandum of understanding to offer Kakao’s mobility services in Guam (Kakao Mobility)

South Korean IT giant Kakao will provide mobility services in Guam before the end of the third quarter through a partnership with Miki Taxi, one of the largest taxi services on the US island territory, Kakao Mobility said Tuesday.

In doing so, the firm will become the country’s first mobility company to apply the entire infrastructure ranging from the platform, driver application and administration on foreign soil, according to Kakao Mobility.

Miki Taxi’s vehicle services took up about 40 percent of the total number of cabs in the island in 2020. It offers taxi reservations and car rentals there.

Kakao Mobility said Koreans visiting Guam are targeted customers and will be able to use its multi-mobility application Kakao T to not only reserve cabs, but also request pickup services at the airport. The mobility services will be expanded to foreign visitors as the firm sets up more stable circumstances for them later on, it added.

“Guam is a place where the number of tourists is over 10 times larger than the island’s population and it is one of the markets where the floating population is expected to explode in line with the recent global endemic trend,” said Ahn Kyu-jin, Kakao Mobility’s chief business officer.

“Based on the experiences of operating services in Guam, we will make efforts to provide Kakao Mobility’s advanced platform services to a wider overseas market in the future,” he added.

By Kan Hyeong-woo (hwkan@heraldcorp.com)