Kakao Mobility

Goal

As part of their mission to make transportation available for all, Kakao Mobility offers an ever-growing suite of apps designed to serve various mobility needs. Two of their most popular services — Kakao T and Kakao Navi — provide over 30 million people with reliable ride-calling and navigation services, respectively. But in the IT industry, where there is always a sense of lacking development resources, speed and efficiency are absolutely essential.

Before launching the new standalone service app, k.ride, a taxi service designed for non-Korean visitors, the team needed a way to scale more efficiently. They needed a platform that would allow them to quickly launch new global projects with limited manpower, and maintain the same look and feel across Android, iOS, and Web.

Why Flutter?

Based on a recommendation from a trusted colleague, the Kakao Mobility team explored documentation on Flutter.dev. They liked Flutter’s multi platform capabilities, and as existing users of several Google products — including Google Maps,Translate, and Firebase App Distribution, Crashlytics, Storage, and Messaging — its seamless integration with these tools was a major selling point.

As a proof of concept, the team built a wireframe test project in just five minutes. Sold on the ease of use and quick learning curve, Kakao Mobility decided to move forward with Flutter.

Their solution

Encouraged by Flutter’s ease of use, Kakao Mobility built a new team within the company to handle the new project. They found Flutter's high portability across platforms especially useful, as they needed to use several elements from their existing apps. Loading features from Flutter was easy, as they could simply implement the features on each platform without developing additional UI for each one. Android and iOS results were solved simultaneously from one code base, and when partial web production was required, they were able to work with Flutter without the need for separate web developer resources.

"The next time we choose a technology stack for a new project, we will choose Flutter without hesitation."

- New Global Service Team, Kakao Mobility

Results

Kakao Mobility launched k.ride, a taxi app designed for global travelers, on May 22, 2024. Currently in public beta, k.ride is on track to launch in 30-40 additional countries within the next few months. Just as they’d hoped, they were able to launch quickly and with a small team. Based on their success, Kakao Mobility intends to continue using Flutter as they scale their app portfolio even further.