Li-Kai Ku

Hello everyone, I am Li-Kai Ku (顧立楷), General Manager of Uber Taipei. Likewise, I am very glad and honored to be invited here to discuss the topic of the sharing economy with everyone.

I am also very excited to see the attention and discussion on the sharing economy from academia, industry, and government officials.

Hello everyone. First, thank you to friends at the Executive Yuan and g0v for bringing us such a great vTaiwan platform. We are very glad to exchange views with everyone and collect various opinions from the public. This part has an open and transparent platform, which is rarely seen anywhere in the world.

We hope to provide users with excellent service, and also hope to make contact and communicate with competent authorities.

We did our basic homework and looked at some conclusions on vTaiwan. Earlier Audrey Tang talked about the gap in opinions between Group 1 and Group 2, but in some places where we see clear aspects, there are consistent opinions. Let me share this with you.

Regarding everyone's concept of the sharing economy, in Taiwan it is quite well understood and deep. People believe the sharing economy can reduce resource waste and create additional economic effects, increasing job opportunities. Most people agree on these two topics. Why the sharing economy has begun to develop more technically is because technology platforms can ensure both sides have trust and feel guaranteed. The role of the Uber platform is to play the matchmaker and supplier, rather than employer and employee. We believe the Taiwanese public has a deep understanding of this.

These last few questions were also selected by us. In addition, the next point lies in regulations: similarly, regarding regulations, whether Group 1 or Group 2 citizens, regarding regulations, they all believe that because there are new trends, a new regulation is needed to govern it. The concept of the sharing economy is using idle resources for easy sharing. It is not an industry competing traditionally with taxis. About 80-90% agree on hoping for new regulations.

One point that gives us confidence is that consumers recognize Uber's overall quality. Even in a situation where Taiwan's taxis are already highly saturated, regarding extra choices and modes of transportation for consumers, they consider this extra competition. We are very happy and hope to continue working hard to elevate overall service.

How Uber works with drivers and participants: in fact, the concept is that they currently have cars. Therefore, we don't use the term "carpooling," but rather "car sharing," which is easier to understand. I have a car, and I hope to share it for everyone to use during my free time. A car sits parked 80% of the time; we might as well take that idle time and vehicle resource to share for everyone to use. This is a very flexible way. Looking at these several partners, they have cars and define it using different times.

This person's private car was originally used to drive their own children, and after school started it was used for sharing. Salespersons spend most of their time on their primary job, and additionally on weekends use it for car sharing.

Regarding the definition of a car, there will be a certain degree of fluidity. Under different modes of use, there will be different definitions. Returning to regulations, this kind of definition is not quite applicable under existing regulations.

Next, we might introduce our understanding and current state of existing regulations. According to existing regulations, becoming a commercial vehicle has certain thresholds, with thresholds and conditions for both drivers and vehicles.

Let's first discuss vehicle conditions. Taking rental cars as an example, to establish a fleet company and provide R-plate cars, one must prepare NT$5 million in capital and purchase ten brand new cars. Some affiliate with fleets, but affiliating requires signing over ownership to the fleet company, leaving no protection for either party.

Under existing regulations, it does not match the concept used by several drivers earlier of using vehicles in a more fluid manner. If we apply this kind of regulation, the concept of car sharing also contradicts the ideal of needing new conditions and regulations.

We invite Vicky (Ms. Vicky Cheng, Public Policy Manager for Asia Pacific at Uber) to introduce examples from other countries.

How to pay taxes legally? Currently, Uber is unlike large multinational corporations such as Facebook that have very large profits everywhere globally; we are actually still in a state of investing all over the world.

Regarding our current financial status, we hope to make some contributions locally. After operating in Taiwan for two years, we have actually already begun paying taxes in Taiwan. After discussions with various countries, we also pay permit taxes where applicable.

Regarding our current income effect, this slide might be a bit blurry and hard to see, but compared to traditional 22k jobs, an Uber job can earn the same income in less time. This efficiency might be even more considerable.

Exchanging with online communities across Taiwan and interacting with Taiwanese interns, we hope to share experience from abroad. We hope to learn from one another.

Finally, regarding public welfare, during sudden unfortunate events, we can make timely contributions. We continue communicating with public welfare groups to see if there are vulnerable groups whose transportation quality can be enhanced by Uber.

What we hope to do is an innovative business model. Uber does not only use Mercedes-Benz or high-end cars. What we see now, for instance, are single mothers; it's impossible for everyone to have a Mercedes-Benz at home.

In fact, the insurance procedure is that when a driver first joins our platform, an insurance review is conducted to ensure they have legal insurance. If an accident actually occurs, regarding the responsibility part mentioned earlier—how to distinguish platform responsibility versus supplier responsibility—our platform calculation determination and responsibility is: if an accident occurs and the insurance policy balance is insufficient, we have an international policy that can provide additional protection for them. This is an extra benefit we offer to drivers.

The international policy is global secondary protection. This part provides additional international protection—including for passengers and third parties—if Taiwan's current insurance portion is insufficient to cover the accident amount.

If the driver's policy is insufficient to cover, the international policy portion can cover it.

Based on our role as a platform, we initially assist in coordinating the local insurance part, which is also our initial duty.

If there is an actual need or additional dispute, it becomes our overseas protection.

For the overseas protection part, we will assist them in making claims.

None so far.

I don't normally carry that insurance policy around with me. (laughter)