[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Kakao Mobility, which is set to enter the cargo brokerage market, has been embroiled in controversy over the technology takeover of small and medium-sized companies. Kakao Mobility countered, "It is not true."

According to the mobility industry on the 13th, Freightman, a cargo transportation brokerage platform, recently raised an issue with the Euljiro Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea, saying, "Kakao Mobility is trying to take away its technology and launch its cargo brokerage service "Kakao T Trucker," and filed a petition to appeal to the Fair Trade Commission and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to resolve its technology theft.

Kakao T Trucker, which is set to launch its official service in the middle of this month, is a service that enhances the convenience of cargo owners. It provides functions such as "fast payment" that pays the fare to the car owner within one hour of the shipper's approval and an "order (order) card" tailored to each driver's individual conditions.

The cargo man claims that Kakao Mobility took over the technology and provided the service when it went awry after pushing for the acquisition of the company more than two years ago. "Kakao Mobility conducted a month-long due diligence in April 2021 and interviewed key employees and checked future sales strategies and financial statements," Freightman said. "They agreed to the due diligence because they did not know the exact sale price, but (Kakao Mobility) said they could not buy it because it was expensive without price negotiations."

It is explained that the data that the cargo man gave to Kakao Mobility included all the contents of the Kakao T trucker service.

Kakao Mobility countered that it is not true. "Fast settlement and customized orders, which cargomen claim to be their ideas, have long been provided by many domestic logistics platform companies," Kakao Mobility said. "It is hard to say that it is a unique idea of cargomen." He also explained, "At that time, the cargo man set the scope of the due diligence, and the target was not the scope to identify technology or ideas."

Meanwhile, with the participation of large companies such as T-Map Mobility (SK), the freight transportation brokerage service market is emerging as an industry battleground. Although the market is worth 30 trillion won, most of them are mediated in analog ways, and platform companies are preparing to jump in.

 

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