Rakuten Card Co, a unit of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc, plans to invest NT$500 million (US$16 million) and create 100 jobs in Taiwan this year before issuing credit cards by this fall, senior executives said in Taipei yesterday.
The announcement came after the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on April 24 approved plans by the Japanese credit-card issuer to set up a local unit that could serve as a launch pad for expansion to other Asian markets.
It is the first time Rakuten Card has acquired an overseas permit and the first permit issued by Taiwan in 12 years.
Rakuten Card will soon establish a unit in Taiwan, allowing the parent group to deepen its presence in e-commerce, digital content and financial services, said Yuichi Ejiri, managing director of Taiwan Rakuten Ichiba Inc (台灣樂天市場), an online retailer.
Taiwan is one of the most successful overseas markets for Rakuten Group, Ejiri added, saying that with its upcoming payment tool, Rakuten will be able to integrate e-commerce, membership and its popular “super points” program into a seamless option for merchants and consumers.
Rakuten Card Taiwan Inc (台灣樂天信用卡) is to have paid-in capital of NT$300 million and serve as the innovation and education hub for the group’s planned payment enterprises in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and other Asian markets, he said.
The payment service provider would also support the parent group’s plan to expand its credit-card business by 40 percent and overall revenues in Taiwan by 60 percent this year, Ejiri said.
Rakuten Card has quickly gained market share since its launch in 2005 due to high customer satisfaction, convenience and the absence of annual fees, executive vice president and director of Rakuten’s finance business Masayuki Hosaka said.
“We are confident Rakuten Card will bring a fresh and exciting approach to the credit-card industry in Taiwan,” Hosaka said.
Founded in 1997, Rakuten is based in Tokyo and has 11,000 employees serving Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania, company data showed.
The group made Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s “Top 10 Most Innovative Companies” in 2012 and last year.
Rakuten is to be the fourth foreign credit-card issuer in the nation, after American Express International Inc (台灣美國運通), Diners Club International Co (台灣大來) and AEON Credit Card Co (台灣永旺).
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six