More than 90 percent of EasyCard users are satisfied with the efficiency and convenience of Taipei's new transportation passes according to an AC Nielson survey released yesterday.
"The survey shows that 92 percent of users described the cards as time-saving and multi-functional," said David Chou (周鄭福), chairman of Taipei Smart Card Corp (台北智慧卡票證公司), the official distributor of the card, at a press conference held yesterday.
The survey polled 687 Taipei residents between Oct. 28 and Nov. 1.
The new IC-chip embedded EasyCard, first launched in June, allows users to access bus lines, Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) trains and 33 public parking lots in Taipei City, simply by touching the card to a card reader installed on buses and at MRT entrances.
Each EasyCard retails for a minimum of NT$500, including a NT$200 deposit. Users can add value to the card in amounts up to NT$10,000 at more than 900 convenience stores and MRT stations.
"This time-saving gadget has really attracted public interest," Chou said. The company sold 400,000 cards last month and is expecting to double that figure by the end of this month, he added.
Yet some transit customers said the EasyCard is not as convenient as they thought it would be. Nearly 19 percent of those polled complained the cards do not cover all bus lines in the Greater Taipei area; while 13 percent said the cards cannot be used at all parking lots in Taipei City.
"Sometimes I have difficulty finding the card readers in public parking lots," said Chang Mei-lan (張美蘭), 52, a commuter. "I don't think I will buy the card again."
While people may be worried about the right fare being deducted from their cards, Taipei Smart Card's Chou said the possibility of inaccuracy is relatively low -- about 0.2 percent.
The nation's largest consumer group, the Consumers' Foundation (消基會), has so far not received any complaints regarding fare deductions, according to Sun Li-chun (孫立群), deputy secretary general of the foundation.
Taipei Smart Card is currently working to increase the number of convenience stores around the city where users are able to add value to their EasyCards.
"We hope to increase the number from the current 900 to 1,800 in the Greater Taipei area by the end of November," Chou said.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained