The volume of text messages sent in Taiwan on New Year’s Eve might continue to decline this year due to consumers’ growing interest in Internet-based messaging apps, according to local telecoms operators.
Taiwan Mobile Co, the country’s second-largest mobile provider, said the number of texts sent by its customers fell by 10 percent on New Year’s Eve last year, and the number is forecast to fall more sharply this year.
The increasing popularity of messaging service apps, such as the US’ WhatsApp and South Korea’s Line, have pushed the number lower, said Jeff Ku (谷元宏), deputy chief operating officer of Taiwan Mobile’s consumer business group.
“In recent years, smartphone users have been gradually shifting from text messaging to Internet-based messaging apps,” Ku said.
Messaging apps, such as the M+ Messenger, allow people to use a smartphone’s Internet connection to send messages instantly, similar to text messaging.
The Taiwan Mobile’s M+ Messenger was launched in August and hit the 1 million download mark within three weeks, ranking as the top free app in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Google Play, the carrier said.
The messaging service now has 2 million users and the number is expected to exceed 4 million before the Lunar New Year in February, it said.
“Whether you like it or not, the trend [of messaging apps] is gaining popularity,” Ku said.
Chunghwa Telecom Co, the nation’s largest telecoms operator, said that the volume of text messages sent on New Year’s Eve is projected to remain flat this year, compared with a 3 percent drop last year.
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co, the nation’s third-largest telecoms operator, said it was also expecting its text message volume to remain unchanged from last year.
Research firm Ovum has forecast that worldwide telecoms operators will lose US$54 billion in short message system (SMS) revenues by 2016 due to the increasing popularity of social messaging services on smartphones.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,