MasterCard International announced yesterday the launch of what it called “the most lavish incentive program” in the Greater China region, setting its sights on the strong purchasing power of Taiwanese businesspeople who travel frequently across the Strait.
The program, which will run from today through Nov. 30, will give away up to 50 BMW Cruise bicycles — valued at approximately NT$70,000 each — to holders of Taiwan-issued Mastercards who make cumulative transactions amounting to US$50,000 in China, Hong Kong or Macau, said Tina Chiang (江威娜), general manager of the company’s Greater China operations.
Cardholders who spend an accumulated amount of US$5,000 could win a Samsonite rolling tote, Chiang said.
“As the launch of cross-strait weekend charter flights has significantly enhanced the mobility of Taiwanese businesspeople in the Greater China region, we are optimistic about the purchasing power of businesspeople traveling frequently to and from China, Hong Kong and Macau,” she said.
Chiang said that 13 banks in Taiwan had issued platinum business credit cards targeting owners of small and medium enterprises.
For travelers between Taiwan and China, credit cards are an important means of payment for items such as flight tickets, hotels, dining, drinking and shopping, she said.
A MasterCard Worldwide Index of Travel report released last week showed that 17.6 percent of Taiwanese business travelers said they needed to travel more over the last 12 months compared with the same period a year earlier.
As many as 60.8 percent of the respondents mentioned China as their most frequent business travel destination, which made the country the most visited destination by Taiwanese business travelers.
Japan was second followed by the US.
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