Eastern Media International Corp (東森國際), the owner of the nation’s two biggest TV shopping channels, yesterday said it is seeking to cooperate with China Unicom Ltd (中國聯通) and Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) to launch shopping services on mobile phones, eyeing a growing smartphone population in Taiwan and China.
“I talked to China Unicom president Lu Yimin (陸益民) this morning and he gave us a welcoming response to our proposal,” Eastern Media International Corp (東森國際) chairman Gary Wang (王令麟) said.
Wang said shopping in cyberspace would become a bigger market than TV shopping in view of the growing popularity of smartphones.
Wang said there are 250 million smartphone users in China and 23 million in Taiwan. Furthermore, Taiwanese spend 1.5 hours a day on average watching TV, while the younger generation spend as long as three hours a day on their phone.
Wang made the remarks at a press conference, where Eastern Media International and two of its TV shopping channels — Eastern Home Shopping & Leisure Co (東森得易購) and Sensengo Co (森森購物) — signed an agreement with the Commerce Development Research Institute (商業發展研究院) to study the possible expansion of cross-strait e-commerce.
Wang said Taiwan must conduct talks with China to ease trade barriers, as China’s slow customs clearance processes remain an obstacle for retail businesses.
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