4 ms·

Seoul has an army of taxi drivers, probably a surplus of them, and the fares are already quite low. It's a massive city of 10 million people and you can get a c

by kyllo 12y ago

Seoul has an army of taxi drivers, probably a surplus of them, and the fares are already quite low. It's a massive city of 10 million people and you can get a cab from one end to the other for the equivalent of about $30 USD. Most rides cost $10-20. Good cab service is essential there, and my theory is that it's due to the extremely high rate of alcohol consumption among the working population. I can't really imagine the Uber business model being attractive in that city because the existing taxi service is so strong.

ForrestN 12y ago
This is very interesting, thank you for the perspective. Clearly it must be somewhat popular if the government feels it necessary to step in and stop them. Is that assumption wrong?
- kyllo 12y ago
  Well the taxi drivers in South Korea are unionized, and labor unions have a lot of political power there. I have no doubt that as soon as they caught wind of Uber, they lobbied the government to pass legislation banning it.
- bane 12y ago
  The taxi service in Seoul is quite well regulated. Fares are cheap and drivers have to have rather incredible safety records (for Seoul) to operate - like 5-10 years of no-accident driving. Uber wants to skirt all around that and rely on crowd sourced reviews to ferret out drivers and unscrupulous fare charging. Can the average Seoul taxi driver be grumpy? Sure. On Uber that would get him bad reviews and get him kicked out. But average Seoul taxi guy also has more than 3/4 of a million safe driving miles on him as well. It's also hard to explain, but unlike NYC style taxis, which are grimy and uncomfortable, Seoul drivers actually keep their cars clean and well serviced. I'd argue that the main reason that the Seoul city government wants to keep Uber out (in favor of a domestic service analog) is that it keeps money patriated and in domestic industries. 0% of the money taxis operate off of leaves Korea. While with Uber, some percentage is likely to.
  - ForrestN 12y ago
    I understand, these are all interesting points. But neither explains the anxiety; if everyone is happy with current service, why would the unions even care? Why aren't they confident that the service will fail on its own?
    - bane 12y ago
      Because they aren't. Any competition, even a failed one, will eat into your bottom line. And in the case of Uber, it's easy to make the political case that it shouldn't be allowed since it's a foreign entity and that means money will leave the country. From the Union's POV, it means that there will now be non-Union drivers out and around.
chrissnell 12y ago
Seoul is also very big and the subway shuts down at night. Wherever your subway car is when it shuts down, that's where you're getting off. As a foreigner, this bewildered me. Me and my buddies would find ourselves in some dark neighborhood full of high-rises and it would be a battle amongst the subway passengers for the few cabs that happened to be waiting at the exits. I would have loved Uber back then, especially the ability to type in our destination. I was there with the military and we lived on big bases but the cab drivers acted like they had no idea where we wanted to go and would drive around aimlessly until they'd ripped us off sufficiently before suddenly remembering and driving us home. Years later, a friend back home explained that most of these taxi drivers (who were men in their 50's) were the deadweight that got laid off from Chaebol corporations back during the Asian Financial Crisis. These guys resent their new occupations and have the shitty attitudes to show it.

by kyllo 12y ago

ForrestN 12y ago

This is very interesting, thank you for the perspective. Clearly it must be somewhat popular if the government feels it necessary to step in and stop them. Is that assumption wrong?

kyllo 12y ago
Well the taxi drivers in South Korea are unionized, and labor unions have a lot of political power there. I have no doubt that as soon as they caught wind of Uber, they lobbied the government to pass legislation banning it.
bane 12y ago
The taxi service in Seoul is quite well regulated. Fares are cheap and drivers have to have rather incredible safety records (for Seoul) to operate - like 5-10 years of no-accident driving. Uber wants to skirt all around that and rely on crowd sourced reviews to ferret out drivers and unscrupulous fare charging. Can the average Seoul taxi driver be grumpy? Sure. On Uber that would get him bad reviews and get him kicked out. But average Seoul taxi guy also has more than 3/4 of a million safe driving miles on him as well. It's also hard to explain, but unlike NYC style taxis, which are grimy and uncomfortable, Seoul drivers actually keep their cars clean and well serviced. I'd argue that the main reason that the Seoul city government wants to keep Uber out (in favor of a domestic service analog) is that it keeps money patriated and in domestic industries. 0% of the money taxis operate off of leaves Korea. While with Uber, some percentage is likely to.
- ForrestN 12y ago
  I understand, these are all interesting points. But neither explains the anxiety; if everyone is happy with current service, why would the unions even care? Why aren't they confident that the service will fail on its own?
  - bane 12y ago
    Because they aren't. Any competition, even a failed one, will eat into your bottom line. And in the case of Uber, it's easy to make the political case that it shouldn't be allowed since it's a foreign entity and that means money will leave the country. From the Union's POV, it means that there will now be non-Union drivers out and around.

chrissnell 12y ago

Seoul is also very big and the subway shuts down at night. Wherever your subway car is when it shuts down, that's where you're getting off. As a foreigner, this bewildered me. Me and my buddies would find ourselves in some dark neighborhood full of high-rises and it would be a battle amongst the subway passengers for the few cabs that happened to be waiting at the exits. I would have loved Uber back then, especially the ability to type in our destination. I was there with the military and we lived on big bases but the cab drivers acted like they had no idea where we wanted to go and would drive around aimlessly until they'd ripped us off sufficiently before suddenly remembering and driving us home. Years later, a friend back home explained that most of these taxi drivers (who were men in their 50's) were the deadweight that got laid off from Chaebol corporations back during the Asian Financial Crisis. These guys resent their new occupations and have the shitty attitudes to show it.