Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom service provider, on Monday reported that net profit last year increased 1.9 percent following the debut of 5G services, its first annual growth since 2015.
Net profit expanded to NT$33.42 billion (US$1.17 billion), up from NT$32.79 billion in 2019, and surpassed the company’s forecast of NT$30.91 billion to NT$32.47 billion.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$4.31, up from NT$4.23 in 2019.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Revenue last year remained little changed at NT$207.61 billion, up from NT$207.52 billion in 2019, but falling short of the company’s guidance of NT$214.1 billion to NT$215.29 billion.
Revenue from corporate customers, value-added services and handset sales offset a continual decline in revenue from voice calls, mobile services and roaming services, the company said, adding that 5G services gradually boosted its average revenue per user (ARPU).
Taiwan Mobile Co’s (台灣大) net profit last year fell 9.54 percent to NT$11.29 billion, down from NT$12.48 billion in 2019, due to 5G spectrum amortization and spending on 5G infrastructure.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$4.01, down from NT$4.51 in 2019, the company said.
Last year’s profit was better than the firm’s forecast of NT$9.47 billion, or earnings per share of NT$3.96.
By the end of last year, Taiwan Mobile had 400,000 5G subscribers, it said, adding that the higher tariffs helped slow a decline in mobile service revenue.
For the whole of last year, its postpaid ARPU fell to NT$657 from NT$722 in 2019, the firm said.
Taiwan Mobile’s revenue increased 6.78 percent to NT$132.86 billion, from NT$124.42 billion in 2019, thanks to a greater contribution from its e-commerce subsidiary Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體). More than half of Taiwan Mobile’s revenue came from Momo.com, which saw revenue soar about 30 percent to NT$67.2 billion last year from NT$51.83 billion in 2019.
However, Taiwan Mobile’s revenue fell below its guidance of NT$134.53 billion.
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co’s (遠傳電信) net profit last year fell 4.24 percent to NT$8.35 billion — beating its guidance of NT$8.02 billion — from NT$8.72 billion in 2019.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$2.56, down from NT$2.68 in 2019, the company said.
Revenue fell 5.21 percent to NT$79.5 billion from NT$83.87 billion in 2019 — missing the company’s guidance of NT$86.76 billion — despite annual growth of 13 percent from new services, including information and communications technology solutions, cloud-based programs and Internet-of-Things services.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts