Mon, Feb 03, 2025 page1

• More than half of Taiwanese used AI last year: NCC

  • By Esme Yeh / Staff writer, with CNA
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  More than half of Taiwanese used artificial intelligence (AI) services last year, a National Communications Commission (NCC) report said.

  The NCC’s 2024 Communications Market Report, released last month, showed that 52.5 percent of people surveyed said they used AI services last year, with smart navigation being the most used (84.3 percent), followed by voice input technology (63.1 percent) and biometric authentication products (57.4 percent), it said.

  In telecommunications trends, the report showed that 35.8 percent of people had moved to 5G networks from 4G, up from 25.5 percent in 2023.

  

  A room for AI servers in an unidentified location is pictured in an undated photo.

  Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times

  About 70 percent said they switched because of discounts on new mobile plans or because they purchased a new mobile device, while 66.7 percent of those who did not switch said they were satisfied with 4G, it said.

  As of November last year, the number of 5G users has surpassed 10 million since 5G networks were launched in Taiwan in June 2020.

  5G users accounted for an estimated 42.5 percent of the population, while the estimated 5G user penetration was up to 33.7 percent of the 29.69 million mobile accounts in Taiwan, the report said.

  Regarding Internet activities, making voice over Internet protocol calls topped the list at 89.7 percent, followed by downloading photographs, videos, movies and music, or playing or downloading at 55.3 percent, and sending or receiving e-mails at 50.4 percent, it said.

  Eighty-two percent of people surveyed, who were aged 16 and older, said they had watched videos on a video-sharing platform last year, up from 75.2 percent in 2023 and 70.7 percent in 2017, the report showed.

  The proportion of people who watched videos on YouTube had exceeded 99 percent every year since 2019, but this year dropped slightly to 98.8 percent, while those that have used TikTok has risen annually from 18.7 percent in 2019 to 45.1 percent, it showed.

  Regarding telecom fraud, respondents said mobile phone scams were the most common, climbing to 83.5 percent last year from 81.1 percent in 2023, the report said.

  The second most common were landline phone scams, which rose to 40.5 percent last year from 32.6 percent in 2023, while fraud committed over instant messaging and social media was also increasing, it said.

  Internet fraud and personal data breaches were the top two Internet problems reported, it showed.

  The proportion of people encountering Internet fraud rose to 25.8 percent last year from 6.3 percent in 2017, while the percentage of people reporting personal data breaches was 19.8 percent, up from 7.5 percent in 2017, it said.

  The third most common Internet problem was hacked accounts, which rose to 9 percent last year from 3.8 percent in 2017, the report said, adding that messaging apps were the most common means of spreading fake news.

  Regarding TV, cable TV remained the most popular source of television, at 58.3 percent, followed by Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) multimedia-on-demand service, more commonly known as MOD; over-the-top (OTT) TV services at 16 percent and terrestrial TV at 7.5 percent, the report said.

  More than 30 percent of respondents reported having used OTT TV, while 58.6 percent of them said they had subscribed to OTT TV services, it said.

  Most of the subscribers said they only subscribed to an online streaming service, making up 73.5 percent of subscribers, with monthly paid accounts or device-specific plans being the most preferred services, the report said.
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