Kakao Mobility to adopt cheaper membership category for taxi drivers starting June

Kakao Mobility Corp., the operator of South Korea's leading taxi-hailing service Kakao T, said Thursday it will introduce a new membership category with cheaper commissions for its taxi drivers. Starting from June, the new plan will require 2.8 percent commission from its drivers, compared with the current membership plan, which has a commission rate ranging from 4 to 5 percent, according to the company. It is a follow-up of Kakao Mobility's earlier suggestions to introduce a cheaper membership category last December after talks with major taxi drivers' groups, aiming to relieve the drivers' financial burdens. The company said it also plans to introduce a new algorithm in the third quarter to improve the quality of the application's driver-customer matching system. The announcement comes a day before the Financial Services Commission, the state financial regulator, is set to hold a meeting to deliberate on allegations that the company committed accounting fraud. In February, the company was fined 9 billi on won (US$6.5 million) by financial authorities over these allegations. Source: Yonhap News Agency