Tokyo-based Ecbo, the Japanese startup offering the Ecbo Cloak luggage storage service and the Ecbo Pickup service, held a press conference in Taipei on Friday to announce the launch of the luggage storage service in Taiwan as its first overseas expansion. Our readers may recall that the company stated that it is looking at the expansion into 50 countries by 2025 when it announced its Series B round in June. The Taiwan expansion is made possible through partnership with local travel trading company Sanpu Travel Group (三普旅遊集團) and H.I.S. Taiwan (三賢旅行社).

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, or simply JNTO, more than 21 million Japanese visited Taiwan last year, and it is said that about 70% of them were forced to spend 15 to 30 minutes to find available coin lockers. Thinking about Taiwan Main Station, for example, only a few hundred coin lockers are available within its neighborhood while approximately 500,000 people use the public transit gateway every day. By bringing the Ecbo Cloak service into Taiwan, it may help not only Japanese and other foreign visitors but also local people leave and store their luggage safely and comfortably.

In Taiwan, the service is initially offered at 30 locations in Taipei, including Jing Sheng Yu flagship store / 京盛宇 旗艦店 (Taiwanese tea), Jin Yu Tang City Hall store / 金玉堂 市府店 (stationery), and Lohas Pottery flagship store on Dihua Street / 陸寶 迪化街旗艦店 (ceramic tea utensils). In addition to aiming to make the service available at 500 locations in Taiwan by 2025, the company want to allow customers to easily order delivering their luggage through the app.

Founded in May of 2015 by CEO Shinichi Kudo (工藤慎一), who speaks both Japanese and Chinese fluently, Ecbo began offering its service in January of 2017, matching people who want to leave their luggage with places to store it. The service allows tourists to leave their luggage at on-street locations such as cafes, beauty salons, and manga cafes. Now available at more than 1,000 locations, it can also offer a reservation function and insurance for checked luggage while all payments can be made by credit card.

via PR Times