Whilst companies such as Uber and Grab compete in the ride hailing and ride hailing space with Go-Jek pushing hard in Indonesia, an unusual player has emerged in the market. Chat app LINE has launched the LINE taxi booking service in Thailand.
The LINE taxi booking service will launch first in Bangkok by the end of the year. Completely going through the current legal route in Thailand where spaces Uber and Grab operate in are still grey, LINE has partnered with the Bangkok Taxi Co-operative Network which claims that 60% of the taxi network are part of their membership.
LINE, the messaging app isn’t the dominating chat app here in Malaysia but in Thailand, the messaging app reign supreme. Included within the app is LINE Man which offers food delivery service as well. LINE has already offered a taxi booking service in Japan and this is their foray outside of Japan.
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LINE went public last year after a $1.1billion IPO which saw the company listed on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. LINE aims to move away from just being a messaging application towards a social platform and a service platform. Currently, the company derives its revenues through advertising as well as in-app purchases.
[Source: TechCrunch]
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