Given that Kakao Mobility is looking to broaden its international presence, this acquisition fits well with the company’s goals. Splyt will provide Kakao Mobility with additional insights into how to better integrate other services within their app platforms, making them more user-friendly and appealing. This will allow Kakao Mobility to tap into a wider range of potential customers and partners, broadening its appeal beyond South Korea.
Kakao Mobility plans to expand its available services to new regions outside of South Korea in order to increase its global reach. The company has already partnered with Splyt, a global market intelligence company, in order to provide better insights into customers and marketing opportunities in Southeast Asia and Europe. With this partnership, Kakao Mobility is able to unearth valuable information that will help guide future growth trajectories. By expanding into new areas, the company can establish itself as a leading player in the mobile industry — something that it is likely striving for given its recent investment dollars and ambitions.
Splyt and Kakao Mobility’s collaboration sees the integration of Splyt’s ride-hailing API platform into Kakao T, allowing for global ride-hailing services to be accessed by users through the app. This partnership is set to benefit both companies as it allows them to combine their respective strengths and reach a wider audience, while also reducing barriers to market entry.
The financial terms of the deal are undisclosed, but it seems like this super app enabler did not get quite the super outcome they were hoping for. With unclear terms, this could mean that there may have been some challenges involved in making this agreement happen. Either way, it’s interesting to see how one of the most popular and influential app creators has partnered with a company like this.
There has been a flurry of activity lately with Splyt raising $33.5 million from SoftBank, Grab, AmEx and others. It seems that they may have found success and stopped providing updates about their business. This could be because they have found a winning formula or they are waiting for something else to happen before updating their investors. We will have to wait and see what happens next forSplyt!
Kakao Mobility’s acquisition of Splyt will give the Korean tech giant a strong foothold in the European market, as Splyt has around 30 staff based in Europe. This merger is also likely to bring in some talented employees from both companies, with Kakao Mobility looking to beef up its technology and engineering capabilities while Splyt gains access to Kakao Mobile’s userbase and know-how.
Kakao Mobility has not specified how it plans to use Splyt’s technology, but it either intends to work with a wider network of international partners or use the tech to extend its own Kakao T app, which currently has around 32 million registered users. In either case, this could provide new ways for users to connect with businesses and socialize.
Kakao Mobility, the mobile content and services company partly spun out of Kakao Corporation, is facing various challenges as a business. Chief among these are the hesitance of investors to back the company’s IPO plans amid cool market conditions for tech stocks, and the ongoing battle between drivers and employees over pay and working conditions.
This suggests that investors are both anticipating and investing in the future of mobility, with companies such as Uber venturing into areas such as autonomous driving and Kakao Mobility seeing a significant valuation increase. This indicates that there is immense potential for growth in this market, with companies looking to capitalize on current trends and trendsetters creatively innovating to create new experiences for users.
As on-demand services like Uber, Lyft and Didi started to dominate the market, they each had to grapple with difficult challenges in terms of building an app that appealed to customers and making it profitable. In particular, integrating multiple services proved incredibly challenging; Splyt was able to solve this problem by providing the technology necessary for different companies to integrate their services. This allowed users of these apps to easily switch between providers without difficulty, increasing loyalty and spending.
Since its founding in 2014, the company has become one of the leading on-demand business platforms with over 1 million active users. The investment from SoftBank will help it continue to grow its user base and develop new services.
Kakao Mobility may be eyeing Splyt as an opportunity to pick up the pieces from its struggles. Earlier this year, both companies had announced a joint venture in which Kakao would invest US$200 million in Splyt and assume an ownership stake of around 50 percent. However, reports quickly surfaced that the two were struggling with existential issues and were likely to split up soon. With Splyt no longer able to justify its earlier investment exuberance, Kakao Mobility may have seen this as a golden opportunity to swoop in and pick up what could be a weakened competitor.
Splyt is, according to the CEO, gearing up to create a new service that will revolutionize the mobility experience for users all over the world. This new service will be based on Kakao Mobility’s platform capabilities and will be available through Split’s global super app network. Users of this network will be able to access Splyt’s services with ease and convenience, making it an ideal solution for those looking for a more seamless mobility experience.
Splyt brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the mobility service platform space to Kakao Mobility, strengthening our competitive edge and enabling us to accelerate further global expansions. With over 1,000 deployed solutions in more than 180 countries, Splyt brings a wealth of experience and expertise that we can leverage as we continue to scale our product and expand globally.
