South Korea’s popular car-ride sharing company Socar, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, has surpassed 7 million members. As of 2019, one in five Korean driver’s license holders is a member of Socar.
The car-ride sharing startup had surpassed 6 million members in June 2020. The cumulative distance traveled by 7 million members with Socar is 1.6 billion km, which is a distance that one can travel around the earth 38,000 times. Over the past ten years, members have rented Socars for about 160 million hours, as per reports.
Increase in diverse user base
In its tenth year, Socar also sees diversified users with regards to age groups. The user base, which was earlier concentrated in the 20s age group, has expanded to the 30s age group. The average age of members has also changed from 29.6 to 34.6 years in 2016. The proportion of users in their thirties increased from 25.7% in 2016 to 34.5% as of June 2021, and those in their 40s increased from 9.7% to 17.5%. Also, those in 30s and 40s account for half of Socar users. Members in the 50s and older age group have also increased from 3.5% to 9.6%, and the proportion of members in their 30s and older, which was less than 40%, exceeded 60% in five years.
SoCar is an easy Car Rental / Car Sharing app, designed for short trips generally just for a few hours. The average usage time and driving distance of Socar users have also increased significantly. In 2016, Socar users traveled 59 km in an average of 5 hours and 10 minutes peruse, but this year, it nearly doubled to 105 km in 12 hours. The members who used Socar the most since the service started in 2011 have used Socar a total of 1,300 times since 2015, and the members with the most accumulated rental hours have used a total of 17,000 hours since 2018.
From 100 vehicles to potential for an IPO
The number of vehicles operated by Socar, which was 100 in 2011, exceeded 16,000 as of July this year. As the customer base and mobility demand diversified, the number of operating vehicles increased to 56. Socar plans to expand the number of operating vehicles to 18,000 units within the third quarter of this year. This will make it easier for those looking to rent a car in Korea.
Park Jae-wook, CEO of Socar, said, “Socar started its service with 100 vehicles in Jeju and has been making daily mobility with 7 million users for 10 years. We will do our best to grow into a mobility platform.”
Socar had achieved unicorn status last year becoming the 12th Korean startup unicorn having attracted 60 billion won about $52 million from investors in 2020, with a corporate value of 1 trillion won or $872.6 million. With many startups going for a public issue in 2021, there are talks of Socar also getting ready to go for an IPO soon.
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