The 4.55 million users of iPass Money — the nation’s second-largest electronic payment service, which was previously called Line Pay Money — found the service more inconvenient to use after iPass Corp (一卡通票證) and Line Pay Taiwan (連加網路商業) separated.
The service was initially a collaboration of the two companies, but it has been solely operated by iPass since Line Pay sold its stake in the service and walked out of the iPass boardroom in November last year, data from the companies showed.
However, iPass, a Kaohsiung-based stored-value card company, does not have an independent payment app for users, so the users still have to use the apps managed by Line Pay and its affiliate, Line Taiwan Ltd (台灣連線), to access iPass Money services.
Photo courtesy of Line Pay Taiwan Ltd
Line Pay on Tuesday renewed its Line Pay payment app, which no longer offers access to iPass Money, and the company said in a statement that the older version of the app would cease to work from May 1.
After that deadline, the 4.55 million users of iPass Money must log into Line Taiwan’s Line messaging app, select the “Wallet” function, click “Line Pay,” and then click “iPass Money” to pay or transfer funds, a process that users said is more inconvenient than when they could gain access through a couple of apps.
Moreover, this sole means of access might disappear next year, as the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) told a videoconference on Tuesday that iPass’ contract with Line Pay is to expire in February next year.
At that point, users of iPass Money would no longer be able to use the Line app to pay or transfer funds, Banking Bureau Chief Secretary Phil Tong (童政彰) said.
However, iPass has told the commission that it would establish its own app, which it plans to launch by the end of this year, Tong said.
Line Pay would manage its own payment service, which is a third-party payment service, Tong added.
A third-party payment service is different from an electronic payment service in that users cannot transfer money to each other or link to users’ bank accounts, the FSC said.
One female user told the Taipei Times that friends had transferred thousands of New Taiwan dollars into her iPass Money account, and she does not know whether she should rush to spend the funds before next year.
Line Pay said that the decision to remove access to iPass Money from its new app was based on considerations of time and resources.
If it had integrated the service into its app, it would have needed to spend more time developing the new app, it said.
Line Pay said that it planned to ask iPass whether it wanted to extend its contract next year, but that discussions had not begun.
The rights of its users would not be affected, iPass said in a statement.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”