An association of local small business owners have raised the need to create a public delivery app after the country’s largest delivery service app operator announced a new fee rate scheme. 

The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise expressed its concern in a statement released Monday, urging the central and local governments to assist in expanding and distributing public delivery apps. 

The federation said public delivery platforms will trigger competition among app service providers to charge lower, more reasonable fees for small business owners. 

Earlier, Baedal Minjok(Baemin) came up with a new charging system that was met with strong criticism from the public and politicians, who saw the move as being inconsiderate of growing impact the coronavirus outbreak was having on small business owners. The company's president later issued an apology and promised to supplement the new fee system.