Uber’s accelerating expansion stalled in Seoul as city seeks ban
THE FAST expansion of Uber, the mobile app for hailing private hire cars, hit a roadblock yesterday as Seoul’s city council said it would ban the service.
Uber, valued at $18.2bn (£10.6bn) in June, launched in the South Korean capital in August last year, but the Seoul city council said yesterday it considers Uber to be “illegal”. It alleged the company is avoiding regulations by the way it operates, and provides unfair competition for established taxi drivers in the city.
In response to the statement by the Seoul city taxi and logistics division, Uber said: “While other global leaders, including London, Washington DC, Singapore and Shanghai have embraced forward thinking technologies and their role in improving consumer services, comments like these show Seoul is in danger of remaining trapped in the past.”
Uber, which was founded in 2009, has experienced recent protests by taxi drivers in a number of cities, including London, but now operates in 150 cities across 41 countries.