Green Car, a subsidiary of LOTTE Rental's car-sharing sector, recorded losses for three consecutive years last year. The company is seeking a rebound with its rebranding to 'G Car' last year, but the gap with the leading car-sharing service SOCAR seems to be widening.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 2nd, Green Car, a car-sharing subsidiary of LOTTE Rental, recorded sales of 72.2 billion won and an operating loss of 1.4 billion won last year. While sales increased by 2.2% compared to the same period the previous year (70.6 billion won), it appears that losses have continued for three consecutive years.
Green Car launched as the first domestic car-sharing company in 2009. The G Car car-sharing service from Green Car allows customers to rent cars through a mobile application. Users can register their driver's license and payment card to rent their desired car whenever they like. Green Car has secured G Car zones throughout urban areas nationwide to allow users to easily and quickly access car-sharing services nearby.
Though it is the first domestic car-sharing company, Green Car has lost market leadership to SOCAR. Currently, the performance gap between the two companies has widened to the point that describing them as rivals seems meaningless. Last year, SOCAR's sales reached 431.8 billion won, an increase of 8.3% compared to the same period the previous year (398.5 billion won). In particular, SOCAR's sales in the fourth quarter of last year increased by about 27.3% year-on-year to reach 122.4 billion won. During the same period, operating profit turned from a loss of 2.7 billion won to a profit of 3 billion won. Unlike Green Car, SOCAR is seeking to transform into a comprehensive mobility platform by acquiring additional services such as Woo Car Parking (parking platform) and Elecle (shared electric bicycles).
Experts point out that the rebranding effect carried out by Green Car last year has been minimal. In September, Green Car changed its service brand name to G Car, which was the same as its corporate name. However, evaluations suggest that by removing the familiar 'Green' that consumers had known for 13 years, the company's identity in the market has become unclear. Additionally, it has been noted that frequent service errors from Green Car have contributed to its poor performance. During the COVID-19 period, when the car-sharing service usage rate was high, G Car experienced errors such as car doors not opening or refunds not being processed correctly.
Green Car's rebranding occurred in September last year, while CEO Hyun-bin Kang took office in November of the same year. Thus, the industry expects that the effects of the rebranding and the CEO change will be reflected this year. Furthermore, LOTTE Rental, Green Car's parent company, will undergo changes as it leaves the LOTTE Group and welcomes a private equity firm as its new owner this year.
The decline in car-sharing users recently is considered a negative factor as the market pie shrinks. According to mobile information company Mobile Index, G Car's monthly active users (MAU) in February declined by 23% to 164,660 compared to the same period the previous year (214,089). G Car users, who averaged over 360,000 monthly in 2021, are on a downward trajectory. SOCAR also saw its MAU drop 29.2% to 614,517 in February compared to the same period the previous year (868,578). SOCAR also surpassed 990,000 MAU in 2023.