Electronic voucher issuer Mohist Web Technology Co (墨攻網路科技) plans to launch 90 million virtual tokens, with an initial offering price of NT$10 per “MoChange Token,” while PetTalk Inc (寵聚), a three-year-old start-up focusing on pet care and health services, is set to launch 40 million “Pet Tokens” at US$0.06 per token.
The two firms are among a number of local companies looking to launch initial coin offerings (ICOs) in an attempt to expand sales, while injecting new growth momentum into their respective industries.
Mohist, the biggest issuer of vouchers in Taiwan, distributes more than 10 million vouchers per year for 650 partners, including hotels, tourism agencies and restaurants, general manager Max Huang (黃少風) said on Monday.
“About 70 percent of the vouchers sold at travel exhibitions become useless, because people buy them on impulse, but forget to redeem them and the vouchers expire,” Huang said.
In Taiwan, people can return the vouchers after they expire, but most are not aware of this and waste the vouchers, Huang said, adding that the practice is bad for the development of the voucher industry.
Mohist, with annual voucher sales of NT$4.8 billion (US$154.29 million), plans to offer token purchasers better discounts on vouchers and other goods following the launch of the MoChange Token, Huang said.
As for PetTalk, the company views use of the Pet Token as a new marketing strategy to build up the local pet industry, which last year had a total production and service value of NT$50 billion, chief executive officer David Cheng (程科茗) said on Tuesday.
Pet Token purchasers can hold them as an investment or exchange them for reward points on the purchase of PetTalk products, Cheng said.
The company, which has about 40,000 members, has teamed up with local veterinary hospitals, pet groomers and pet food shops, and aims to build a network of 1,200 partners in two years, he said.
Pet Token trading is to start on the ACE Exchange and BitAsset Exchange from June 3, while MoChange Token trading is to start on the ACE Exchange from July.
“We encourage companies to offer utility tokens that can be exchanged for real goods or services, as we consider this the right direction for the development of virtual currencies in Taiwan,” said David Pan (潘奕彰), general manager of Ace Digital Innovations Co (王牌數位創新), which operates the ACE Exchange.
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