Spurred by robust demand, Yahoo-Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩), the nation’s largest online auctioneer, said yesterday it would launch a fixed-price sales platform called “The Mall” (超級商城) on Sept. 25, following on the heels of eBay’s recent adoption of Amazon’s e-retail model.
Jerry Ku (顧昌欣), vice president of the company’s e-commerce business services division, said that contrary to popular belief, 60 percent of Yahoo-Kimo users make fixed-price purchases on its site.
“Instead of bidding and waiting for an auction to end, many of our users prefer the simplicity of a direct, immediate, hassle-free purchase,” Ku told a media briefing.
Ku said “the introduction of The Mall will diversify Yahoo-Kimo’s business model and add a new stream of revenue to the company,” but did not comment on whether the company felt the auction market was slowing or whether the site would hurt its auction sales.
The year-end goal for the Internet portal is to attract 50,000 to 100,000 listings, or 300 of its biggest power sellers, on its fixed-price sales site, the company said.
The Mall differs from Yahoo-Kimo Shopping (購物通) in that rather than re-directing visitors to independent e-commerce Web pages hosted by various stores, The Mall aggregates these stores on one Web site and offers shoppers a uniform checkout.
“Now buyers can take advantage of sellers’ quantity discounts, bundled sales, free gifts and other promotions, and see all the items in one shopping cart,” said Leon Chen (陳杰), a category manager of e-commerce at the company.
Sellers will need to be registered businesses that issue receipts. The new site will offer debit and credit card payment options, as well as pay-by-installment options.
Yahoo-Kimo will implement a seven-day product inspection period and act as financial custodian until a transaction is completed. The company cooperates with more than 15 international and regional banks.
The added security features were developed by Yahoo’s global engineering team, but The Mall is strictly a Taiwanese concept and venture, the company said.
On its auction site, sellers are charged a 3 percent transaction fee with a cap. On the fixed-price site, Yahoo’s commission will range from 2.5 percent to 5 percent depending on the product and sellers will be charged a store opening fee of NT$15,000 and a monthly service fee of NT$3,000.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) said it has come up with a new pathway to shorten its gap with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), potentially achieving a breakthrough in making advanced semiconductors without cutting-edge equipment. Right now there is about a five-year gap between what TSMC is capable of and what Huawei, together with its manufacturing partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), can produce. Huawei is to start making 1.4-nanometer chips by 2031 with its own “LogicFolding” technology, Huawei semiconductor chief He Tingbo (何庭波) said in a rare public appearance during a chip conference yesterday, while TSMC has
RSS