Japanese-owned vehicle advertising start-up Flare (Thailand) Co Ltd will expand operations to Cambodia this month in cooperation with Japanese recycling firm ReNet Japan Group Inc, ReNet Japan said in a statement on Wednesday.

The companies plan to register 5,000 drivers and manage 300 million yen ($2.7 million) worth of advertisements over the next three years, ReNet Japan said.

The service, Flare AD, places advertisements on vehicles and pays their owners according to the distance and duration of journeys calculated via its mobile application, which tracks vehicle locations using the global positioning system (GPS), it said.

Flare (Thailand) will provide software and operational support while ReNet Japan will manage sales, Flare (Thailand) CEO Kazuki Kamiya told Japan’s NNA Business News.

ReNet Japan – based in Nagoya, Japan – currently operates several businesses in the Kingdom such as auto leasing services and used car sales.

It will strive to offer the service to taxis and other ride-hailing vehicles, a ReNet Japan spokeswoman told Japanese news agency NNA.

Through its advertisements, it hopes to provide car owners with extra income and monitor vehicle locations via its mobile application, the statement said.

According to NNA, the Japanese group posted an 88.9 per cent surge in sales to 8.57 billion yen in the last fiscal year, mostly driven by the rapid business growth in Cambodia.

For business in the Kingdom, it saw an over 12-fold increase in operating profit, up more than six-fold from a year earlier, financial statements show.