Seventy-one percent of respondents favor digital wallets as a payment tool, 16 percent prefer credit cards and 13 percent mainly use cash, a survey compiled by Mastercard Taiwan showed on Wednesday.
Convenience stores, supermarkets, e-commerce platforms and wholesale outlets are where people use digital wallets the most, the survey showed.
The survey of 1,000 Taiwanese from Oct. 27 to Nov. 9 found that 68 percent of respondents opened at least one digital wallet account this year, while 89 percent do not use more than three digital wallets.
Photo: Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Times
More than half spent more than NT$250 per digital wallet transaction, up 10 percent from a year earlier, the survey showed.
One in 10 people said that they have not used cash in the past year, it said.
“The results indicate that consumers have become more loyal to a few specific digital wallets, although different payment companies have been trying to attract new users with reward programs and other perks in a competitive market,” Mastercard Taiwan general manager Eva Chen (陳懿文) said in a statement.
Ninety percent of respondents hope digital wallets would be accepted at more stalls, shops and restaurants, the survey found, with 45 percent reporting that they had been forced to use cash after merchants refused to accept digital payments, Chen said.
“Boosting merchants’ acceptance and developing consumer loyalty will continue to be important for digital payment companies,” she said, adding that better information about security and additional functions are also crucial to promoting digital wallets.
The survey found that 69 percent used digital wallets to pay utility or parking fees this year, up from 33 percent a year earlier, Mastercard said.
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