Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信) launched its mobile commerce service yesterday, boasting secure financial transaction and convenient pick-up services.
The new option for mobile phone shopping that doesn't require the replacement of current handsets is now available.
"With our mobile commerce platform, users can browse for products, place orders and make payments in one stop," said Jennifer Chang (
Far EasTone has cooperated with 7-Eleven outlets and the United World Chinese Commercial Bank (世華商銀), Hwa Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), E. Sun Bank (玉山銀行) and Far Eastern International Bank (遠東銀行) to develop the distribution and payment system.
After subscribing to the "m-commerce" service, customers can shop for books, music CDs, flight tickets, movie tickets and make reservations for local hotels and restaurants from their handsets.
Far EasTone said that if users of the service replaced their SIM (subscription identification module) cards with advanced SIM cards at a cost NT$500, security would be enhanced.
M-commerce business is expected to expand rapidly within the next few years, said Andrew Wong (王中永), vice president of Far EasTone's convergence service.
"Sales via m-commerce account for less than 3 percent of the entire mobile phone business in Taiwan. Far EasTone expects its m-commerce business to grow by up to 10 percent of the company's total sales next year," he said
An industry watcher, however, believes that mobile banking for the near-term will become far more popular than m-commerce. "Although Japanese mobile phone users intend to acquire entertainment and shopping information over cellphones, Taiwanese seem to prefer news and banking services," a telecom analyst at China Securities Co Ltd (
Similar services are available from Chunghwa Telecom Co Ltd (
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”