⁍ Uber will invest more than $150 million in a joint venture and partnership with South Korea’s SK Telecom.

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⁍ The move is Uber’s latest attempt to expand in a market where it has faced tough competition.

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⁍ The U.S. ride-hailing company currently offers premium taxi-hailing and registered taxi-hailing services in South Korea.

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– South Korea’s SK Telecom is proposing to split off its mobility services, including satellite navigation and taxi-hailing, into a new company called T Map Mobility, which Uber will then back with a direct investment of $50 million and another $100 million in a joint venture structure, the companies said in a statement, per Reuters. Subject to regulatory approval, the joint venture is expected to begin operations in the first half of 2021, the statement said. The joint venture would combine T Map Mobility’s “network of drivers and mapping technology with Uber’s ride-hailing technology and global operations expertise,” it added. It is expected to launch a co-branded platform, which riders and drivers of T Map Taxi will be encouraged to join after the launch. T Map Taxi is SK Telecom’s taxi-hailing platform, the second-largest in Korea after Kakao with 750,000 monthly active users. Its T Map satellite navigation platform is Korea’s largest with 13 million monthly active users. Uber will own 51% of the joint venture, while T Map Mobility will hold the remaining 49%. SK Telecom said it expected T Map Mobility, valued at about $873.3 million, to grow into a company worth 4.5 trillion won by 2025.