By Michael Nakhiengchanh, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The “Xtraspots” driveway rental app launched this week in New York City, per CNA.
Founded by Taiwanese entrepreneur Antony Chang (張映旋), Xtraspots has been in development for three years. The company is based in the U.S. but has a subsidiary in Taiwan, while the development team is Taiwanese, and the servers are also hosted in Taiwan.
Troubled by the difficulty of finding parking spaces in urban areas, Chang and his partners decided to develop an app that displays available private parking spaces and rates on a map. Homeowners or shop owners can also utilize their empty parking spaces to make money, per the company’s website.
Chang and his team promoted the launch of their app on Friday (Feb. 9) at Times Square in New York. “After three years, we finally made it. Now we hope that more users will use our product,” Chang told CNA.
He also thanked Chief Technology Officer Chen Hsuan-te (陳軒德) and Chief Financial Officer Lin Chen-chen (林真真) for their contributions. He said that without their hard work, the app would not have been launched in the U.S.
Xtraspots Chair Charles Sepulveda said the app can benefit New York City, and he hoped that people who want to earn extra income will seize the opportunity. “We are optimistic about the shared parking space market and plan to expand from New York to other major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago,” he said.
Xtraspots also plans to introduce a “shared charging” option later this year. The expectation is homeowners or store owners can offer their charging facilities in addition to empty parking spaces to improve electric vehicle infrastructure in the U.S.
Reference:
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/5094085
