Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體), the nation’s leading online and TV retailer, is hoping for a better second half of this year, as it waits for new businesses to bear fruit, company chairman Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) said yesterday.
“The company’s report card last year was not satisfactory, but acceptable. However, the pressure in the first half of this year remains large,” cable TV station USTV quoted Tsai as saying at the company’s annual general meeting in Taipei.
Momo.com, a retail subsidiary of Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), operates an online shopping network, a TV home shopping division and a catalog shopping business. It posted record revenue of NT$112.56 billion (US$3.76 billion) last year, up 3 percent from a year earlier.
Photo: CNA
However, revenue in the first quarter fell 1.76 percent year-on-year, or 21.1 percent quarter-on-quarter, to NT$26.41 billion.
Sales in its business-to-customer operations, which accounted for 97 percent of total revenue, dropped 1 percent year-on-year to NT$2.55 billion, the first annual decline in the company’s history.
That came amid weakening momentum for online consumption during the post-COVID-19 pandemic period, as well as fierce competition with local and foreign e-commerce peers, the company said.
The increase in operating expenses dragged down the company’s operating margin to 2.98 percent in the first quarter, down 1.18 percentage points from a year earlier.
Net profit was NT$859.59 million in the quarter, also down 5.5 percent annually, with earnings per share of NT$3.41, company data showed.
As the nation’s e-commerce penetration rate is about 13 percent, much lower than in neighboring South Korea, there is still ample room to develop that business in Taiwan, Tsai said, adding that achieving a 20 percent penetration rate is achievable in the near future.
Faced with aggressive competition from foreign e-commerce operators, including South Korea’s Coupang Corp, Momo.com has teamed up with Meta Platforms Inc to integrate e-commerce and social media platforms and develop a retail media network for advertising.
In addition, the company has introduced a new business-to-business-to-consumer model through its “mo-shop+” platform, which enables third-party sellers to offer products to consumers through the Momo platform. It also operates a live broadcast business and opened a logistics center in Tainan, while constructing another in central Taiwan, as the company aims to expand its operations.
While the new businesses are expected to help improve Momo.com’s gross merchandise value and operating margin in the long term, it would take time for them to make significant contributions in the short term, due to the high initial investment costs and the need for larger internal integration efforts, Tsai said.
Moreover, US President Donald Trump’s trade and tariff policies also create uncertainty in the global marco climate, he said.
“Tariffs ... and the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar have made consumers more conservative about the economy, making them more cautious about spending,” which have in turn affected the e-commerce business, Tsai was quoted as saying. “Momo faces greater challenges in the second half of the year.”
Shareholders yesterday approved the company’s proposal to distribute a dividend of NT$13.3 per share — which comprises a cash dividend of NT$12.8 and NT$0.5 from capital surplus, representing a payout ratio of 97.15 percent based on earnings per share of NT$13.69 last year.
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
UNCERTAINTIES: The world’s biggest chip packager and tester is closely monitoring the US’ tariff policy before making any capacity adjustments, a company official said ASE Technology Holding Inc (日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packager and tester, yesterday said it is cautiously evaluating new advanced packaging capacity expansion in the US in response to customers’ requests amid uncertainties about the US’ tariff policy. Compared with its semiconductor peers, ASE has been relatively prudent about building new capacity in the US. However, the company is adjusting its global manufacturing footprint expansion after US President Donald Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs in April, and new import duties targeting semiconductors and other items that are vital to national security. ASE subsidiary Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) is participating in Nvidia
RSS