TADA travel company about Korea expansion, zero commission, EV plans – Wired PR Lifestyle Story

MVL Foundation Pte Ltd – a leading blockchain-based local travel service company TADA – announced last month that it has partnered with Kornatus to allow users to travel to both countries using local apps in the first quarter of next year.

Kornatus, managed by BanBan Taxi, is the first and only one in South Korea. Two years after its launch, BanBan Taxi ended its expansion in its country by hiring 40 percent of drivers nationwide.

Under this new partnership, the driving teams of the two companies will be combined and each individual application will be able to call taxis owned by both companies.

In other words, people can ride in South Korea with the TADA app, which was previously only available in Southeast Asia, and vice versa was only available in South Korea for BanBan Taxi.

This is great news for vaccinated travelers, according to the Vaccine Travel Scheme (VTL) scheme they are planning a trip to South Korea.

In an interview with the Vulcan Post, Jonathan Chua, CEO of TADA, expressed his optimism about how this partnership will benefit Singapore and Korean tourists.

“With the ease of travel restrictions, we expect more and more Korean tourists to visit Southeast Asian countries like Singapore. The great news is that they can travel from Singapore without any problems, using the Korean travel app they already know, and vice versa for Korean travelers,” he said.

“[This partnership] Both TADA and Kornatusi allow them to enter new markets and expand their mobility services around the world. ”

Today, TADA has a presence in three markets in Southeast Asia, namely Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam; and is now spreading to South Korea.

Jonathan describes South Korea’s travel market as “one of the strongest” in the world. It is constantly growing, which has attracted many mobility companies to enter its market.

At the same time, it also acknowledges that it is difficult to enter the South Korean market as a foreign company because of its transportation services. is limited to licensed taxis.

“Collaborating with established companies like Kornatus would be ideal to reach out to Korean users and achieve excellent business results,” he added.

TADA does not charge its drivers any commission

Closer to home, Singapore’s travel market is highly competitive, with taxi companies also struggling to get a piece of the pie.

Earlier this year, Singapore’s largest taxi company ComfortDelGro launched a ride-hailing test, where its users can rent a taxi or private car in its application.

Despite the competitive landscape, TADA is standing out from its rivals in a completely different way because it stops raising money through commissions.

Since we launched in 2018, TADA has not charged a commission. Drivers can save 100 percent of the travel fare per trip, minus $ 0.30 and $ 0.50 for the platform fee and transaction fees for cashless payments. The zero commission model also affects consumers at lower prices.

– Jonathan Chua, General Manager of TADA

Since TADA operates on a zero-commission service, it puts them in a completely different playing field than other local players based on commissions.

“Our main focus is to improve the livelihood of drivers with a fair mobility ecosystem that we are working on, which is the focus of other traditional travel-hailing platforms,” Jonathan said.

Sharing more of their business strategy, he added, TADA aims to build its market share in a sustainable way, rather than burn money.

“We are there to provide more options for users and drivers of travel applications, an option where drivers do not have to pay a 20 percent commission, and users can enjoy cheaper fares.

TADA sees significant growth despite Covid-19

Covid-19 has been a tumultuous time for most businesses, and the ride industry is no exception.

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, TADA has managed to have “pilot growth in the last year,” Jonathan said.

He argued that people were starting to pay more attention to frontlines – which include privately hired drivers who make up a large percentage of the concert economy – during the pandemic.

“This also happens when people develop empathy for them and understand how the commission can affect their livelihoods. We believe that something like this that is growing is more effective than a high-budget marketing campaign,” he added.

In the midst of the pandemic, TADA has had several milestones. In May last year, it He launched TADA Fresh Market, Which sends food directly from your wet markets in Singapore to your doorstep.

According to TADA, the wet market offers more value and freshness to buyers, but because they are not well connected to digital distribution channels, TADA Fresh Market aims to bridge the gap in offline and offline shipping.

Then, in October 2020, TADA granted him a three-year transportation service operator’s license from the Land Transport Authority (LTA). Four other operators have also been granted this license, Including Grab, Gojek, ComfortDelGro and Ryde.

Jonathan considers this approval of the license to be a major turning point for the company.

For us, it meant that the team’s effort to keep TADA as a trusted platform was recognized by the authorities. For users of the ride app, it means that TADA was officially on their radar.

– Jonathan Chua, General Manager of TADA

In March 2021, TADA launched a new corporate portal called TADA Corporate to meet the transportation needs of businesses.

The portal includes a set of tools to streamline administrative processes, provide employers with greater flexibility in managing transportation costs, and is available to companies of all sizes.

Then, in July of this year, it launched an on-demand shipping service, where users can book a TADA trip to meet their logistical needs, be it home-made sweets, packages or urgent documents.

All of these new companies that TADA can play the role of a “problem solver” are in line with their promise of zero commission. With the expansion of their service portfolio, it helps expand revenue for private hire drivers and allows them to earn extra income.

TADA continues to charge

Earlier in April, MVLLABS – the company behind TADA – raised $ 15 million in a Series B funding round to help build an electric vehicle (EV) launch model in Cambodia.

EV, called ONiON T1, was developed in collaboration with its Central investor, which is a South Korean automotive parts manufacturer.

The vehicle will be launched through MVL’s subsidiary, MVL Energy, and will be added to TADA’s fleet in Phnom Penh (Cambodia), where the company will provide travel and shipping services.

The ONiON EV will reduce the energy costs of traditional three-wheeled vehicles or tuk-tuk to just $ 60 a month, according to MVL. He also plans to install ONiON battery exchange stations throughout Phnom Penh.

“When we decided to launch ONiON T1 – a modernized E-TukTuk with a Cambodian battery exchange subscription service, we wanted to address two main areas for improvement: fuel efficiency and environmental impact,” Jonathan shared.

“Traditional tuk-tuks use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which not only respects the environment, but also eats up drivers’ profits, as the price of LPG fuels is constantly rising. Fuel cost efficiency is a major concern for tuk-tuk drivers, mostly for livelihoods based on travel transportation and delivery services. The ONiON T1 battery exchange subscription service can help reduce overall overhead costs by 20 to 30 percent.

In addition to its efforts to make mobility in Cambodia greener, TADA has focused on the gradual adoption of electric vehicles in Singapore and other regions.

Sharing short-term business plans, Jonathan said TADA will work on executive plans for the markets in which it operates, including the removal of the first electric vehicles from the Phnom Penh assembly line in the coming months.

Ultimately, the company’s goal is to make mobility fair, rewarding and sustainable.

Although the industry demands “fairer pay” for private hire drivers, Jonathan noted that in the ride circle (drivers, cyclists, operators) cyclists are always favored by the appeal of promotional codes and low prices.

Platforms are willing to do anything to win over cyclists, often at the expense of drivers ’profits. There is room for zero commissions like TADA to defend the driver’s first vision and explore how this can benefit not only drivers, but also cyclists.

– Jonathan Chua, General Manager of TADA

Credit for outstanding image: TADA