Awaiting a major merger and market listing later this year, South Korea’s leading mobile messenger service provider Kakao Corp. has been trying to diversify its business portfolio as its conventional sources of profit weaken, and the rumor is that it is looking into the taxi business.

“Although it is hard to reveal detailed businesses, we have established a task force to find new models for profits,” Kane Lee, a communications official from Kakao, said Tuesday over the phone.

The goal, Lee said, is for Kakao to become an information platform for everyday lives.

“It is true that we are also considering tapping the call-taxi sector. But there is nothing much to comment on that,” Lee said, adding the project is just one of numerous business models on which the task force is conducting initial studies.

The taxi service app, according to insiders, will connect a customer with the closest cab. Kakao will partner with officially registered taxi drivers for the service. (Yonhap)