The government’s goal of increasing the adoption of cashless payments to 90 percent by 2025 could be achieved five years ahead of schedule, Visa Inc said yesterday as the company expands the role of credit and debit cards using its technology.
The firm has rolled out a unified global standard for QR codes and vendors have quickened the pace of upgrading to contactless payment terminals, Visa country manager for Taiwan Marco Ma (麻少華) told a news conference in Taipei.
About 70 percent of consumers are willing to adopt contactless credit card payments, while 60 percent of active cards are ready to be used in mobile payment applications, Ma said, adding that 80 percent of local banks have made their systems compatible with contactless terminals.
These conditions and Taiwan’s 86.8 percent smartphone penetration rate provide a solid foundation for rapid growth, Ma said, adding that vendors on average update their payment terminals every five to six years.
Most notably, the company aims to bring contactless and mobile payments to debit card users, which is the biggest consumer demography in Taiwan, Ma said.
The company is hoping to convert the estimated 15 million Visa Debit Card users, who last year made total transactions of NT$10 billion (US$339 million), to contactless and mobile payment users, he said.
Visa is also looking to improve in-app purchases with its new QR code system, which would reduce data security risks for both vendors and consumers.
Previously, vendors required consumers to provide personal information, such as date of birth, that are not related to a purchase or transaction, which is offputting for some and the reason why many people prefer to use cash.
Using Visa’s revamped QR code service, consumers can verify payments through scanning QR codes, saving them the process of manually entering credit card and personal information.
Consumers would also be able to pay recurring bills by scanning QR codes with wallet services, such as the Ministry of Finance’s Taiwan Pay, from the second half of this year.
Visa, which is developing a unified global QR code standard with EMVCo, a consortium comprised of the world’s major credit card issuers, has urged local wallet app developers to adopt the new standard, which would help vendors accept payments from around the world.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS