On the first anniversary of its launch of the popular Skype and SkypeOut telephony services in Taiwan, PC Home Online (網路家庭) yesterday introduced a new service, "SkypeIn" to round out its Internet telephony suite.
To date, "PCHome-Skype" has been downloaded more than 7.1 million times in Taiwan, with more than 2.3 million registered members.
The penetration rate in the local market over the past year grew at the fastest pace in the world, while the number of local Skype users is second only to that of the US, Niklas Zennstrom, chief executive officer and co-founder of the peer-to-peer (P2P) telephony company Skype Technologies SA, told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
PC Home Online, the nation's fourth-largest Internet portal, last year became the Luxembourg-based company's first global partner in promoting the Skype software, which enables users to make free calls to fellow clients over an Internet connection. The package also allows making conference calls with up to five users.
Last November, the alliance launched the "SkypeOut" service, which enables users to make domestic or international calls from computers to fixed-line or mobile phones for one-eighth to one-third the price charged by fixed-line carriers.
The number of SkypeOut users has grown to 150,000 people in Taiwan, the pilot market for the global development of Skype.
The SkypeIn service launched by PC Home Online yesterday allows users to receive international phone calls. Skype members can apply for a phone number that can be dialed from a conventional phone in one of eight countries or territories -- Hong Kong, the US, the UK, France, Poland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The call will then be directed to their computers.
Local Internet phone numbers are expected to become available this quarter, pending approval by the Directorate General of Telecommunications, said Sam Tsai (
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) shares yesterday notched their best two-day rally on record, as investors flock to the Taiwanese chip designer on excitement over its tie-up with Google. The Taipei-listed stock jumped 8.59 percent, capping a two-session surge of 19 percent and closing at a fresh all-time high of NT$1,770. That extended a two-month rally on growing awareness of MediaTek’s work on Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs), which are chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications. It also highlights how fund managers faced with single-stock limits on their holding of market titan Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are diversifying into other AI-related firms.
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