Line Pay’s electronic payment services (EPS) reported NT$556.5 million (US$18.1 million) in transfers between accounts in September, ranking first and accounting for 86.3 percent of total transfers made via mobile payment tools in Taiwan, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) data showed.
In the month, total transfers between electronic payment accounts held by different entities registered at the 26 active electronic payment providers jumped 673 percent to NT$644.82 million from NT$83.4 million in August, data released on Thursday last week showed.
Third-party payment providers are still not allowed to offer transfer services, nor are they allowed to transfer funds using electronic stored-value cards, as the government regulates such activity, because of money-laundering concerns, the commission said.
Fund transfers were largely neglected by major players until Line Pay in September promoted its services by awarding users with digital red envelopes.
“The transfer function is becoming really popular,” an FSC official surnamed Chen (陳) said on Thursday.
Although not the core business of electronic payment service providers, transfer functions can spare people from having to travel to the bank or using card readers to transfer money online, Chen said, adding that they are convenient when, for instance, splitting the bill at a restaurant.
Some local companies have even used the function to pay bonuses to their employees, Chen said.
Line launched combined electronic payment and stored-value card services on Sept. 3, and by the end of the month registered Line Pay/iPass accounts reached 517,593 users, ranking it fourth in electronic payment services after E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行), with 795,414 users, AllPay Financial Information Service Co Ltd (歐付寶), with 760,308 users and Jkos Pay (街口), with 539,897 users, FSC data showed.
Line Pay is popular because it makes it easy for users younger than 20 to register for electronic payments and charges no fees for peer-to-peer transfers, Wanning Liao (廖婉寧), a communications officer at LINE Biz+ Taiwan Ltd, the operator of Line Pay, said on Friday.
However, use of Line Pay as an in-store payment tool remained low in September, totaling NT$8 million in transactions and accounting for just 0.3 percent of the NT$2.53 billion in electronic payments in the month, FSC data showed.
Line Pay is expanding partnerships with stores nationwide and expects to see the number rise, Liao said.
Line Pay had more than 3.7 million registered users in Taiwan at the end of September, of which 13.99 percent had a Line Pay/iPass electronic payment account, the company said, adding that there is ample room for further growth.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”