Visa and China’s largest shopping platform, Taobao.com,= have joined forces to boost cross-strait e-commerce by increasing online shopping safety with the “Verified by Visa” service.
The move came after Taobao.com (淘寶網), a subsidiary of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴), said in a statement on Wednesday that it planned to open a virtual “Taiwan Mall” in July to sell Taiwanese-brand products.
“Taobao is always focused on improving the user experience for its customers and is pleased to work with Visa to provide a secure and convenient payment option for our Taiwan-based users,” Taobao chief financial officer Daniel Zhang (張勇) said on Thursday.
Verified by Visa is a password-protected service that verifies a cardholder’s identity when shopping online. The service provides added assurance that a genuine cardholder is taking part in the transaction and protects online shoppers from the risk of fraudulent use of their cards.
Visa’s country manager for Taiwan Marco Ma (麻少華) said that for retailers, the service offers a guarantee that cardholders are who they say they are and reduces the likelihood of fraudulent transactions.
“Cross-border online shopping is a growing phenomenon in the Asia Pacific and Taiwan’s Internet shoppers have not lagged behind,” Ma said. “Through cooperation with Taobao.com, we hope to increase cardholders’ confidence when they shop online.”
Currently, there are 13 credit card issuers that provide the Verified by Visa service to Visa cardholders in Taiwan.
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