Online game publisher Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (遊戲橘子) is working to provide third-party payment services later this month not only to Taiwanese but also to Japanese online gamers.
Gamania said in a statement yesterday that it would provide the new service through its subsidiary, Gash Plus Co Ltd (樂點卡), which will collaborate with banks to launch an online trading platform later this month.
The company, which is also a local distributor of several popular massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), is the latest to express its interest in joining the payment business after the government last month removed a ban on non-financial institutions entering this market.
Last month, MacroWell OMG Digital Entertainment Co (歐買尬) and Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技) announced that they would soon apply to the government to offer payment services.
On Aug. 7, Allpay Financial Information Service Co Ltd (歐付寶), a subsidiary of MacroWell OMG, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs had approved its plan to launch a cross-border online transaction platform along with First Commercial Bank (第一銀行).
Founded in 2011, Gash Plus currently processes nearly 200,000 transactions per day via its platform, which was originally designed for computer gamers to deposit or refill credits used in various games, the company said.
Gash Plus chief operating officer Su Hsing-hung (蘇信泓) said the company’s large client base could help Gamania break into the third-party payment service market, adding that the company would strive to provide clients with diverse, safe and convenient online payment choices.
Gash Plus has attracted clients from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, China, Southeast Asia, the US and Europe.
Gash Plus has received approval from the Japanese government to provide third-party payment services for consumers there. The company is also applying for ISO27001 and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard certifications, which could come as early as the end of this quarter, it said.
In the first half of the year, Gamania Digital reported a net profit of NT$104 million (US$3.48 million), compared with NT$10 million in the same period last year. Revenue for the first seven months of the year rose 11.42 percent to NT$4.73 billion from NT$4.25 billion over the same period last year, the company’s financial statement showed.
Gamania’s shares closed up 0.21 percent at NT$24.40 yesterday, outperforming the benchmark TAIEX, which fell 0.06 percent.
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