Shopee Taiwan Co Ltd (樂購蝦皮), one of the nation’s leading mobile e-commerce platforms, yesterday said it has no plan to drop its free-shipping policy requirements in view of fierce price competition from local peers.
“Free shipping is not our only weapon to attract consumers in Taiwan, but it is a really effective one. We are not planning to phase out our policy anytime soon,” Shopee Asia Pacific regional managing director Terence Pang (馮時欽) told a news conference in Taipei.
The Singapore-based company entered the Taiwanese market in 2015, providing consumer-to-consumer (C2C) auction services, free listings for sellers and free shipping from a minimum purchase of NT$99.
The strategy paid off, as Shopee became one of the top three auction platform operators last year, along with Taiwan Yahoo Holdings Ltd (雅虎) and PChome Online Inc’s (網路家庭) subsidiary Ruten.com (露天拍賣), the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) said.
MIC did not publish market shares for the three firms.
Yahoo launched free shipping in April this year, while PChome subsidiary PChomestore Inc (商店街) last month lowered the minimum purchase requirement for free shipping from NT$199 to NT$99 , only to drop it entirely at the beginning of this month.
PChomestore last month announced it would expand its service by offering auction services on its business-to-consumer (B2C) Web site and mobile app.
Shopee last month also expanded its business scope in Taiwan by collaborating with brand vendors to offer B2C service.
The company yesterday launched an updated version of its app, offering one-stop shopping for both B2C and C2C services, as the company aims to attract more customers, Pang said.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS