Chinese tourists gain access to Kakao's cab-hailing service

Chinese tourists who visit Korea can conveniently use Kakao Mobility’s cab-hailing service without downloading the app from Thursday.

[KAKAO MOBILITY]

Chinese tourists who visit Korea can conveniently use Kakao Mobility’s cab-hailing service without downloading the app from Thursday.

This has been made possible through the technology of Kakao Mobility’s recently-acquired affiliate Splyt, a London-based software company that interlinks different travel-related apps to enable users to enjoy services through one app without having to download each individual app.

Splyt has more than 100 clients such as Uber, Grab, Booking.com, Trip.com, Alipay and WeChat.

Three Chinese travel apps — Alipay, WeChat and Ctrip — have been docked to the Kakao Taxi app, and Chinese users can call two premium services, Kakao T Venti and Kakao Black Taxi, without downloading the app.

The payment will be automatically transacted through any payment system the users have registered on their respective apps.

The number of affiliated apps and cab-hailing options will be expanded in the future for the convenience of visiting foreigners, the company said.

“We hope this system will help foreign tourists to conveniently use the cab-hailing service as well as help the taxi market,” said Kakao Mobility CEO Ryu Gung-seon in a statement. “We will continue to bolster our efforts to vitalize the domestic tourism industry as a mobility platform.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]