Visa Inc yesterday introduced a new mobile payment service targeting local small businesses and wet market stalls that do not accept credit cards, saying that it would be an easier alternative to cash transactions.
The US-based financial services provider has partnered with nine local banks and Taiwan Pay, a government-initiated mobile payment service, for the new service, Visa deputy country manager Eric Wang (王正平) told a news conference in Taipei.
Holders of Visa cards issued by any of the nine banks can scan the merchants’ QR codes placed on stickers or labels by using the lenders’ digital wallets, Wang said.
The new service would apply to 15 million consumers, he said.
The number of merchants accepting Visa’s QR code payment methods had grown to more than 9,000 as of the end of last month, Wang said.
Many merchants do not accept credit cards, as some of them are wet market stalls, such as fishmongers or flower vendors, and they are accustomed to taking cash, he said.
Some others are small shops that do not want to pay handling fees to banks, Wang said.
However, they are willing to use QR code payments as consumers embrace the contactless payment method, he said.
An online survey conducted by Visa in May showed that 49 percent of Taiwanese used QR payment methods, higher than 28 percent in Hong Kong and 10 percent in Macau, as they view it as a more convenient, safer and cleaner payment method.
A QR code is more convenient for merchants, as they do not need to install a near-field communication device or a credit-card reader, instead, they only need to place a sticker for customers to scan with their smartphones, Wang said.
Merchants still have to pay handling fees, but many of them have said that it is worth adopting the new payment method, as they would not need to manage cash, he said.
The nine banks are Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行), Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan Ltd (渣打台灣銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) and Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀).
Visa is in talks with other banks, but it might need more time to reach an agreement, as some lenders still value their digital wallets and are more conservative about cooperation with others, Wang said.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day