Mobility Innovators

South Korea was one of the few countries which had very strict regulations for taxis and ride-sharing companies. In fact, Uber was forced to leave the country in 2019 owing to strict regulations. Uber has now changed its strategy and forming partnerships with Taxi companies around the world. Seoul Metropolitan Government launched its own taxi app for registered cabs. It allowed KakaoTaxi to provide a taxi booking service. However, ridesharing or taxi sharing was completely banned.

In January 2022, the Seoul government changed its four-decades-old taxi industry development law and allowed ridesharing services legally in the city.

The government allowed a taxi platform called “Banban (half-and-half) Taxi” which will offer taxi-sharing services for its users who select a shared ride call in its smartphone app.

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The new law allows only voluntary taxi sharing arranged through the app. It automatically matches users whose routes overlap at least 70% and automatically calculates the fare in proportion to the distance traveled. The government also integrate few safety features including:

• Riders can choose if they want to share the ride
• Only passengers of the same gender are allowed to ride together
• Users can sign up for the app only with their real name and pay the fare only with their own credit cards

Taxi sharing was allowed in South Korea and the drivers could take more passengers to increase their revenue. However, the government banned the practice in 1982 owing to frequent customer complaints, disputes, etc.

About The Author

Jaspal Singh is the Founder of Mobility Innovation Lab (MIL) and Host of the Mobility Innovators Podcast. If you are working on innovative ideas and solving mobility and transportation issues, please feel free to reach out. He loves to talk about startups, mobility, and technology.