LINE Biz+ Taiwan Ltd (連加網路) and iPass Corp (一卡通票證) yesterday announced that they would be forming a cross-border mobile payment alliance with four regional peers: Japan-based Line Pay Corp, Thailand-based Rabbit Line Pay Co Ltd, and South Korea-based Naver Corp and NHN Payco Corp.
The collaboration would enable the companies’ 78 million users to make electronic payments at stores that accept Line Pay, Naver Pay, Payco or Rabbit Line Pay, LINE Biz+ Taiwan said.
“We noticed that Japanese, [South] Koreans, Thais and Taiwanese visit to each others’ countries frequently. Our cooperation would save them time and trouble with foreign exchanges,” the firm said.
That would benefit the payment operators’ partnered stores as well, as they would be able to market their products or services to more clients, it said.
LINE Biz+ Taiwan and Naver Pay have partnered with more than 164,000 stores in Taiwan and 250,000 stores in South Korea respectively, while other payment operators also have abundant corporate clients, as they are popular among customers, LINE Biz+ Taiwan marketing business head Vincent Yeh (葉君毅) told a news conference in Taipei.
Customers would not need to download new mobile apps or register another app, as the apps offered by the six operators would be connected automatically, LINE Biz+ Taiwan said.
For instance, Taiwanese would be able to purchase goods in South Korea using Line Pay at stores that accept Payco or Naver Pay after scanning a QR code with their mobile phones, while South Korean or Thai tourists could pay in Taiwan using their own mobile payment services, the firm said.
Like overseas credit card spending, customers would need to pay a handling fee for each overseas transaction, but LINE Biz+ Taiwan and iPass would negotiate with banks to reduce the handling fee, iPass senior assistant vice president Wang Jiun-ping (王俊平) said.
Unlike credit cards, Taiwanese using electronic payment services would only pay in New Taiwan dollars when making purchases abroad, Wang said, adding that the service would automatically convert the currencies at the real exchange rate.
The service would be launched in Taiwan for travelers from Japan, South Korea and Thailand in the first quarter of next year, while people traveling from Taiwan to the three countries would need to wait longer to use the service, Wang said.
NHN Payco, the only company among the four not affiliated with Naver, expects to attract more foreign clients through the alliance, while it has an advantage in offline marketing compared with its counterpart Naver Pay, director Choi Myung-hwan told the Taipei Times.
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