The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 10th that it has approved the establishment of a joint venture between Uber BV (Uber) and Tmap Mobility.
On October 22 of last year, Uber reported to the Fair Trade Commission about the establishment of a joint venture with Tmap Mobility to operate vehicle calling services using mobile apps in Korea with a 51:49 stake.
Uber is a global vehicle-sharing platform business operator. In Korea, it provides vehicle calling services such as’Uber Taxi’, a general taxi calling service, and’Uber Black’, a premium taxi calling service.
Tmap Mobility is a company founded by SK Telecom by dividing the mobility business division at the end of December last year. T-map taxi, T-map navigation, T-map parking, T-map public transportation, and T-map map.
The joint venture plans to operate a business by receiving a vehicle call service from both companies. Tmap Mobility plans to provide the Tmap map service transferred from SKT to the joint venture.
As a result of examining whether or not the business combination was restricted, focusing on the domestic vehicle calling service market where the two companies’ business overlapped, the FTC decided that there was no concern about restrictions on competition, and returned the results of the examination on the 28th of last month.
The Fair Trade Commission comprehensively considers the fact that the market concentration of the domestic vehicle calling service market before and after the merger is not large, and there is competitive pressure from general taxis, as well as the fact that substantial competitive pressure against Kakao T, the No. 1 operator, may increase. It was determined that there was no concern for restrictions.
As a result of examining the possibility of restricting competition that may occur in a vertical aspect by receiving maps from Tmap Mobility, the joint venture determined that the possibility of blocking sales ships by map service providers or blockade of map service purchase ships by vehicle calling service providers was not great.
Related Articles
SK Telecom and Uber promote the establishment of a joint venture with Tmap Mobility
Uber Taxi starts beta service in Seoul
Why did Uber sell the’autonomous vehicle business’
What kind of company is’HyperConnect’, a native startup that sold for 2 trillion won?
An official from the Fair Trade Commission said, “This decision is meaningful to lay the groundwork for promoting innovation competition in new industries such as vehicle calling services.”
The FTC will continue to strictly examine and take action against business combinations that may substantially limit competition in related markets, while promoting innovation while allowing business combinations without any concerns about competition restrictions, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of companies and revitalizing related markets. We plan to lay the groundwork for this.