【Fantasy Archives】

After a protracted stand-off with the government,Fantasy Archives Uber has decided to suspend its service in Taiwan.

The San Francisco company said in a blog post that its service will be "paused" from Feb. 10, and that it hoped it could "reset the conversation."

Because taxi companies in Taiwan are legally required to be domestically owned and operated, Uber is in violation of that law, despite its efforts to become legal in Taiwan.

As a result, it's racked up NT$1.1 billion ($35.3 million) in fines, made worse by the regulator just recently raising the maximum fine for unlicensed taxi operators.

The penalty was raised sharply in December 2016 to NT$25 million ($780,000) for violations, from a far lower range of NT$50,000 to NT$150,000 ($1,600 to $4,826).

In the last year, Taiwan police have increased crackdowns on unlicensed taxi services, and even gone after drivers directly in an effort to clamp down on the service.

The company has also been ordered to pay NT$134 million ($4.3 million) in alleged back taxes. Its food delivery service, UberEATS, was also fined NT$180 million ($5.8 million) for breaching transport and safety regulations.

Uber said that it has "listened intently" to the feedback from the Taiwanese government and taken steps, such as securing a local insurance policy, initiating efforts to collaborate with the taxi industry, and indicating compliance on a cross-border e-commerce bill.

The local taxi union is certainly pleased Uber's backing down. Union leaders said Uber's presence had led to a 30 percent decrease in business, Apple Dailyreported.

Over a million people in Taiwan have downloaded the app, and Uber says that over 15 million trips have been taken since its launch in the territory four years ago.

The ride-sharing service has also faced difficulty operating in neighbouring China and Hong Kong, with it conceding the mainland Chinese market to Didi Chuxing, and its Hong Kong arm suspending its taxi and van services.

(Editor: {typename type="name"/})