[New Wave] Parking Lots Wear ICT and Stand at the Center of Innovation

Jaehon Lee, Head of Digital Economy Research Institute at Kakao Mobility

The most stressful moment for drivers is when there is no parking space near their destination. They wait endlessly in line in front of a full parking lot or circle around looking for another parking lot. If all else fails, they sometimes resort to illegal parking in a corner of a side street.

Metropolitan areas, including the Seoul Capital Area, and other large cities are struggling with parking issues in every local government. Complaints related to parking are incessant everywhere. However, it is practically impossible to build enough new parking lots to meet the increased demand. In Seoul, depending on the area, it costs around 100 million KRW to create a single new parking space.

Recently, "smart parking" has been gaining attention as a solution to the urban problem of parking. Currently, most parking lots in Korea operate offline with on-site managers handling tasks manually. Even if computerized, many systems only manage entry and exit within the parking lot without integration with external systems. However, connecting customers and parking lots online through smart parking brings tremendous changes. Customers can find out in advance where available parking lots are near their destination, how to get there, and how much the parking fee will be. They no longer need to prepare cash or look for a parking payment machine, as payment is automatically processed through pre-registered payment methods.

Parking control systems incorporate all the core technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Deep learning-based image recognition technology, various sensor technologies applied to parking spaces, indoor positioning technology using Wi-Fi or mobile communication signals, and parking demand estimation technology based on traffic big data all enable smart parking.

With technological advancements, the market size is expected to continue expanding. The domestic parking market, including intelligent parking control systems, parking equipment and operations, and related services, is estimated to have reached 5 trillion KRW in 2020. Not only large corporations like Kakao Mobility and SK Telecom but also small and medium enterprises such as Amano Korea, Darae Parktech, Nexpa System, and Parking Cloud are fiercely competing to capture this new market.

The most visited theme park in Korea is Everland, located in Yongin. It was also selected as the number one popular tourist destination by Kakao Navi in 2019. Until now, customers have faced inconveniences such as traffic congestion around the area, having to search for parking spaces one by one in the parking lot, and difficulty estimating the expected time to complete parking.

To reduce these recurring inconveniences for customers, Everland recently decided to introduce the cloud-based "Kakao T Parking." As a result, visitors to Everland will be able to check available parking lots in real time and receive navigation guidance to empty parking spaces. Entry and exit will also be processed automatically, making it even more convenient.

The success of the future parking industry depends on securing more connections. Kakao T Parking already operates services at 1,600 parking lots in the Seoul Capital Area, including Yongsan I'Park Mall and Incheon International Airport Terminal 2. Through the Kakao T platform, which has 24 million members, and its cloud-based proprietary parking control solution, it is rapidly expanding parking connectivity. We look forward to the day when parking spaces?the places where movement begins and ends?wear ICT and stand tall as the protagonists of the upcoming era of autonomous vehicles and smart mobility.

Jaeho Lee, Director of Digital Economy Research Institute, Kakao Mobility