From next month, people who ride on the Taoyuan Airport Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system can use credit cards issued by Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc, the two firms said.
The move is Mastercard’s latest effort to expand its payment services after it formed an exclusive partnership with the Kaohsiung MRT system early this year, while Visa is expanding into the two markets for the first time.
Mastercard expects many foreign tourists to use a credit card when taking the Taoyuan Airport MRT to avoid the hassle of waiting in line to buy tickets, MasterCard Taiwan business development director Mei Liu (劉美慧) told a media briefing in Taipei.
Given that about 20 percent of passengers on the airport MRT line are traveling between Taipei and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the company expects credit card payments to rapidly increase over the short term, Liu said.
Although many local passengers use EasyCards, the company expects some locals to use credit cards because they offer higher rewards than the Easycard, Liu added.
People can tap their credit cards at the gates leading to the platform or scan their mobile device after entering their card information into a mobile app such as Apple Pay, the companies said.
Contactless payment is a safe and convenient solution that has been increasingly used throughout the world, as it eliminates the need to stand in line to purchase train tickets, the companies added.
“We are excited to bring contactless payments to the Taoyuan Airport MRT and Kaohsiung MRT systems. This is a key milestone for digital payments in Taiwan, as people have more payment options, including credit cards, mobile devices or wearables such as smart watches,” Visa Taiwan general manager Marco Ma (麻少華) said in a statement.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”