Players of the game app Fruit Ninja are now just a click and tap away from boosting Taiwanese farmers’ produce sales and income, a marketing company said yesterday.
“Working with a world-renowned, popular and free game app, we would like to use a new approach to help market local produce,” the Taipei-based CrossMedia Group said in a statement.
Players of Fruit Ninja, which has 700 million downloads worldwide, can now order all kinds of in-season produce directly from Taiwanese farmers, the company said.
The campaign involves an advertising banner on the app, visible only to players in Taiwan, that connects users to a Web site where they can order locally grown produce or have the chance to win a month’s supply of fruit and vegetables.
If the model proves successful, the company said it would duplicate it to market Taiwanese produce around the world.
CrossMedia Group marketing manager Shally Hou said the firm chose Fruit Ninja because the game’s theme fits the campaign, and because it has 700 million downloads.
In Taiwan alone, the game has 1.78 million downloads and 168,000 monthly active users, she said.
The company hopes that the model will help increase farmers’ incomes, Hou said, adding that the firm is working with 74 farmers and is looking to expand the network.
Most farmers only make about NT$22,000 a month, because the bulk of the revenue from sales of fruit and vegetables ends up in the pockets of middlemen, according to iLohas (愛樂活), a Taiwanese social enterprise that helps farmers and is involved in the project.
Baggio Chang (張佑輔), co-founder of iLohas, said that directly buying produce from farmers could triple their revenues.
“We welcome all kinds of approaches to help local farmers and look forward to good results,” he said.
Fruit Ninja developer HalfBrick Studios of Australia also expressed excitement over the cause, saying that it would give out free Fruit Ninja-themed souvenirs to those who place orders.
Ryanair, Transavia, Volotea and other low-cost airlines are feeling the financial pain from high jet fuel prices as a result of the Middle East war and are cutting flights. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has taken a huge chunk of oil supplies off the market, sending the price of jet fuel soaring and triggering fears of shortages that could force airlines to cancel flights. Airlines are not waiting for a lack of supplies to react. “Travel alert: Airlines are cutting thousands of flights right now,” Travel Therapy host Karen Schaler said in an Instagram reel this past weekend.
MANAGING RISKS: Taiwan has secured LNG sufficient to cover 95 percent of electricity demand for next month, UBS said, describing the government’s approach as proactive UBS Group AG has raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 8 percent, up from 6.9 percent previously, and said expansion could reach as high as 8.6 percent if external energy shocks are avoided. The upgrade reflects a stronger-than-expected first-quarter performance and sustained momentum in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven exports, which UBS said are providing a firm foundation for growth despite geopolitical and energy risks. Taiwan’s GDP expanded 13.69 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the fastest growth since the second quarter of 1987, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Thursday. On a seasonally
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
The list of Asian stocks that benefit from business partnership with Nvidia Corp is getting longer, as the region further integrates into the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant’s business ecosystem. Just in the past week, South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, Taiwan’s Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), as well as China’s Huizhou Desay SV Automotive Co (德賽西威) and Pateo Connect Technology Shanghai Corp (博泰車聯) have become the latest to rally on news of tie-ups, supply-chain participation or product collaboration with the US chip designer. Asian suppliers account for about 90 percent of Nvidia’s production costs, up from about 65 percent last year, data compiled