Taipei, July 12 (CNA) TaxiGo, the Taiwanese version of U.S.-based ride-hailing service Uber, kicked off its official operations Wednesday after a successful three-month trial period.
In addition to the announcement of official operations, TaxiGo said that it has received more than NT$10 million (US$327,868) in investment for future expansion, as investors appear upbeat about the outlook for the new ride-hailing provider.
Chen Tai-cheng, chief executive officer of TaxiGo, said that his company is an information technology developer, so the "Chatbot" chatroom developed by the firm is able to allow consumers to use LINE and Facebook to hail a taxi.
Without the need to download any additional App, consumers simply log onto the Chatbot chatroom to write down the address they want to be picked up at and confirm the order in just a blink, Chen said.
He said consumers are not required to register or provide their personal information.
TaxiGo also announced that its fleet so far comprises more than 2,500 taxis.
During the three months of trial operations, the company received an average of more 1,000 ride requests a day, according to TaxiGo.
In addition to its own taxi fleet, Chen said that TaxiGo also works with 18 taxi companies such as Kao Yi, Dun Nan and Yu Feng, in a bid to provide better services to consumers, Chen said.
According to TaxiGo, Taiwan has about 86,000 taxis on the streets every day, providing about 400 million rides to consumers every year, which translates into a huge market with annual sales of NT$54 billion (US$1.77 billion).
To improve consumers' safety and ride quality, Chen said that the Chatbot platform provides consumers with an evaluation system to evaluate every ride, while the platform will record every journey, which can be shared with other taxi drivers for their future services. According to TaxiGo, every taxi driver participating in the company's services is strictly screened.
Meanwhile, Chen said, consumers can also register their credit cards with the platform in order to provide a more convenient payment method.
Chen said that TaxiGo aims to recruit more taxi drivers into its fleet to meet demand.
TaxiGo said that the platform is the initial step for the company and that it is possible the firm will expand its business scope into areas such as car rentals.
