Shopee Taiwan Co’s (樂購蝦皮) decision to start charging sellers a fee is likely to hurt the mobile auction app’s local business in the short term, but whether it would cause a long-term impact depends on what other measures it offers to retain users, the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) said yesterday.
“Many sellers using Shopee’s platform are likely shift to other mobile platforms when the company begins the new charging mechanism next month,” MIC analyst Rosa Chang (張筱祺) said by telephone.
Chang said the company could try to ameliorate the damage by offering free shipping for a short period or providing discounts for credit-card payments, among others.
“It is worth monitoring to see if Shopee would launch new measures to keep its users,” she said.
Shopee on Wednesday announced that starting on April 17, it would charge sellers 0.5 percent from each transaction and 1.5 percent for credit-card payments.
The Singapore-based mobile auction app provider entered the Taiwanese market in 2015.
Its business grew fast in the past few years mainly due to the company’s strategy of offering free auction services, attracting 8 million registered users and more than 2,000 individual sellers, the company’s data showed.
TOP THREE
MIC’s research shows that Yahoo Taiwan Holdings Ltd (雅虎), PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) subsidiary Ruten.com (露天拍賣) and Shopee ranked as the top three consumer-to-consumer (C2C) auction platforms in the nation last year.
Yahoo Asia-Pacific managing director Rose Tsou (鄒開蓮) said the company was not surprised at Shopee’s decision to start charging fees, as a healthy C2C business requires a fee-based model.
“It takes time to build a reputation on an auction platform for sellers. I think the impact [on Shopee] will be limited,” Tsou told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s e-commerce event in Taipei yesterday.
Tsou said Shopee’s new policy is not likely to dramatically change the nation’s C2C landscape, with only a limited number of sellers moving from Shopee to other auction sites.
MOBILE PAYMENTS
In related news, an MIC survey showed that most Taiwanese used mobile payment services to pay for restaurant bills and transportation services.
The survey showed that 76.4 percent of the service was used for paying restaurant bills, 33.2 percent for transportation, and 19.3 percent for purchases of clothing, footwear, bags and accessories.
The survey also found that usage of mobile payment services has yet to pick up in the nation, with most people using them to pay smaller bills or amounts.
The poll showed that 66.7 percent of consumers used them fewer than four times per year and 86.9 percent used them for payments of less than NT$1,000.
Additional reporting by CNA
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure