Shared transport booms, older riders opting for scooters

Industry

Published: 10 Nov. 2020, 17:30 Updated: 10 Nov. 2020, 19:49

Shared transport booms, older riders opting for scooters

An employee from Kakao Mobility organizes Kakao T bikes at Songdo Central Park in Yeonsu District, Incheon. [NEWS1]

The mobility business has gone from 0 to 60 in no time flat, growing exponentially over the past four years, according to a recent report.

Hyundai Card and Hyundai Capital analyzed the payment data for sharing mobility services, such as SoCar car sharing and Ttareungi bike sharing, from 21 branches between January 2017 and October 2020.

The report includes three types of sharing mobility services: car sharing, bike sharing and electric scooters sharing.

According to the report, the number of payments made for sharing mobility services jumped by 219 percent this year compared to 2017. During the same period, the total payments spiked 109 percent.

More specifically, the number of payments made for sharing mobility services was 643,248 in 2017 — but increased to 1.7 million this year. As of October, the number of payments made for sharing mobility services was already nearly 1.5 times the payments in full-year 2019.

The total amount, which was about 11.1 billion won ($9.95 million) in 2017, reached 19.3 billion won as of October this year.

Electric scooters were particularly popular. In 2017, no payments were made for electric scooter-sharing services. The number was 1,288 in 2018; 155,216 in 2019 and 625,866 as of October this year.

People in their 20s used the sharing mobility service most enthusiastically. In 2017, this cohort made up 55 percent of all users, while it slightly declined to 42 percent in 2020.

The growth was fastest for people in their 50s and 60s. The number of payments made by people in their 20s and 30s jumped by 145 percent and 262 percent, respectively, this year compared to four years ago. During the same period, the number of payments made by people in their 50s and 60s spiked 515 percent and 659 percent, respectively.

Preferences on the types of sharing mobility services vary by age.

While people in their 20s used car-sharing services about 639,649 times this year, they only used electric scooters 505,921 times. On the other hand, people in their 50s or 60s used electric scooters about 47,137 times, while they used car-sharing services about 34,557 times.

“As many people aged 50 or above have their own vehicles, it is more likely that they use electric scooter-sharing services rather than car-sharing services,” a spokesperson for Hyundai Card said in the Monday’s report.

Hyundai Card and Hyundai Capital has interviewed some 1,000 people aged between 20 and 59 who have used sharing mobility services.

When they were asked the reason why they use sharing mobility services, a full 66 percent said they could choose the types of transportation method depending on the location, time and distance to the destination.

“The sharing mobility services have been offering people more possible options than existing transportation methods in terms of scheduling their plans depending on their circumstances,” the report read.

The growing perception that owning a vehicle is not essential is another driving force behind the boom in sharing mobility services.

When people were asked if they thought there’s no need to own a vehicle two years ago, a full 38 percent said yes. When they were asked again if they now think owning a car is not essential, roughly 53 percent agreed.

BY CHEA SARAH [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]