Sharing Platform Business Cases and Discussing New Industry Development Strategies
Mobility Platform Starting from the Direction of Enabling Better Lives for the Entire City

Amazon, Google, Alibaba, Netflix, and Facebook share a common characteristic among global enterprises. They are "platform companies." Now, platforms are emerging as an important business in industry.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has created an opportunity to share cases of platform companies and discuss the direction that the domestic industry should take. The "2017 Industrial Platform Conference" held at COEX on the 17th was organized to raise awareness of platform business, which is a new trend in business industry, and to promote its expansion.

Baek Man-ki, director of the R&D Strategy Planning Division at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, stated, "Major industries are undergoing rapid digitalization. Data and platforms are at the core of this," and added, "We must create public platforms with both public interest and innovation by combining the common capabilities of platforms with the core competencies of companies." He explained that for transitioning to platforms by industry, it is desirable to start from existing hub companies.

Among emerging platform companies, the mobility platform company "Uber" cannot be overlooked. Uber has grown as a technology platform that connects passengers and drivers with a single smartphone button. Currently, it provides a variety of services beyond Uber taxi, including UberShare, a commute carpooling service; UberAssist, a customized service for transportation-disadvantaged individuals; and Uber Eats for food delivery.

Emily Portvin, Uber Asia Director, stated, "Seoul citizens spend two weeks a year dealing with traffic congestion and finding parking. As cars increase, there are environmental, human, and economic costs," and added, "Uber focuses on making urban mobility convenient, safe, and fast to reach desired destinations."

Uber taxi service is offered in over 70 countries. Users can input their destination by opening the app and share the estimated arrival time with family or friends. Both drivers and passengers can rate each other, fostering mutual respect and trust. Additionally, focusing on the fact that even when using public transportation, one must travel to stations or bus stops, the service connects these points by using taxis. These services originated from consideration of how passengers, drivers, and the city as a whole can lead better lives.

Emily Portvin conveyed, "It is important to provide services when passengers need them to improve service quality. We identify urban trends based on collected data." This means anticipating and responding to supply and demand in advance when events occur in the city, such as sports games or concerts.

He stated, "Recently, we discovered that many people move in the same direction at the same time. Sharing vehicle movements can reduce negative impacts from traffic congestion," and added, "The complementary roles between vehicle sharing and public transportation are at the core of Uber."

Uber taxi, used in many countries, is not yet available in Korea. Kakao Taxi serves as a domestic platform alternative. Kakao Mobility has bundled four services—Kakao Taxi, navigation, driver, and parking—into a single T app.

Ahn Gyu-jin, director of Kakao Mobility, explained, "We started to make people's movement convenient. Currently, it is limited to people's movement, but we plan to expand to goods and business mobility," explaining Kakao Mobility's services.

He stated, "Looking at Kakao Taxi data, whereas people used to call taxis from main streets in the past, now many people call taxis from indoors or alleyways," and revealed, "There were concerns about dividing the call taxi market, but as taxi demand actually increased, taxi drivers' incomes also increased."

"The driver service also had a cost-reduction effect as insurance premiums and program fees that designated drivers had to bear disappeared," he emphasized that government, companies, providers, and consumers are stakeholders in mobility services, and explained how mobility services are changing our society.