Kakao Mobility is set to establish a dedicated service platform in Laos, stepping into serious competition with global players like Gojek and Grab in the Southeast Asian market.
Last year, Kakao Mobility initiated its globalization strategy by directly applying Kakao T’s technology infrastructure in Guam, a region in North America. Now, to enhance its competitive edge in the Southeast Asian market, they have signed a business agreement with LVMCHoldings, recognized as a national enterprise in Laos, to develop a dedicated local service platform.
Established in 1997, LVMCHoldings has expanded its business in the Indochina Peninsula, including Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia, based on mobility operations such as automobile and motorcycle production. It holds the largest scale among private companies in Laos, with the number one position in vehicle sales within Laos and second place in commercial vehicle sales in Vietnam, showcasing a strong market presence in Southeast Asia.
As a landlocked country, Laos is surrounded by significant markets such as China and the USA, evaluating its potential as a gateway city to the Southeast Asian mobility market. Its geographical significance and central location bordering all countries in the Mekong region (Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) make it an ideal base for regional competition and trade.
Moreover, the country possesses ideal conditions for various technologies and services aimed at future mobility from an ESG perspective. With an abundance of electrical energy, Laos is expected to serve as a major testing ground for realizing green mobility amid a rising global demand for electric vehicle services.
Despite these geographic and environmental advantages and high mobility demand, Laos’s public transport infrastructure is notably underdeveloped. Kakao Mobility plans to leverage its advanced data analytics and ICT-based service operation expertise to enhance service supply infrastructure in the region.
Kakao Mobility aims to complete the establishment of a dedicated service platform in Laos within the year, preparing to launch mobility services tailored to the local market conditions. This stands out as a remarkable achievement of ‘localizing technological infrastructure’ in a country where market conditions and regulations differ vastly.
This initiative reflects Kakao Mobility’s capacity to analyze the unique ecosystem of South Korea’s mobility industry, maximizing benefits for both users and suppliers in the age of digital transformation, thereby enabling the establishment of a globally competitive and independent technology platform infrastructure.
Moving forward, the goal is to use the operational experience in Laos as a stepping stone for expansion across Southeast Asia, demonstrating the global competitiveness of Kakao Mobility’s unique technological infrastructure in a market dominated by local giants like Gojek and Grab.
The launch of Kakao T Roaming marks the beginning of Kakao Mobility’s global market entry. Currently operating in 32 countries across Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, the service is continuously expanding to support seamless mobility experiences by integrating local means of transportation.
Plans are also underway to launch inbound roaming services for foreigners visiting Korea. According to the Korea Tourism Organization’s statistics, the number of visitors to Korea in last October increased more than five times compared to the same period in 2019 prior to the pandemic, leading to higher demand for mobility services for inbound arrivals.
Kakao T Roaming has seen remarkable growth in alignment with an increase in travel demand after the pandemic. Comparing data from the first week when overseas travel started to recover last June (6/2–6/8) to the Lunar New Year holiday period this year (1/19–1/25), completed rides surged by an average of 3.8 times in Vietnam and 7.5 times in Thailand. In Japan, where travel restrictions were eased in October last year, the number of completed rides skyrocketed to more than 27 times that of the specific period (10/13–10/19).
According to Ahn Gyu-jin, Vice President of Kakao Mobility, “Kakao Mobility is achieving the globalization of the Korean mobility platform by applying technological infrastructure directly abroad. With this entry into Laos, we aim to demonstrate our global competitiveness in Southeast Asia, one of the major mobility markets, and continually create successful examples of overseas expansion leading the global mobility industry.”
By Lee Sang-jin daedusj@autodiary.kr