Mobile payments jumped 127 percent from a year earlier to NT$120.9 billion (US$4.15 billion) in the first seven months of the year, as consumers embraced contactless payment amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Commission showed yesterday.
The use of mobile payment services, which enables consumers to pay their bills just by tapping their smartphones, has surged as people feel safer not having to hold cash or come into contact with devices that have been touched by other people.
As more consumers turn to mobile payment services, supermarket chain operator Pxmart Co Ltd (全聯實業) and state-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), as well as several franchise shops and department stores have launched electronic wallets to boost consumer loyalty, the commission said.
Photo: Lee Ching-hui, Taipei Times
That some consumers chose to redeem their Triple Stimulus Vouchers via mobile payment services could also boost online transactions, the commission said.
Transactions made via electronic payment services — such as Jkos Pay operated by Jkopay Co (街口支付), and Line Pay Money offered by LINE Biz+ Taiwan Ltd (連加網路) and iPass Corp (一卡通票證) — totaled NT$45.6 billion in the first seven months, ranking first among the five types of mobile payment tools, the data showed.
E-payment transactions rose 3.18 times from NT$14.3 billion a year earlier, the fastest growth among the five tools, as more stores partnered with Jkopay or Line Pay Money, and more teenagers used the service to transfer money from bank accounts to e-payment accounts, the commission said.
It was the first time that transactions through e-payment services outperformed those via mobile credit cards, the data showed.
Mobile credit cards reported the second-largest transactions, with NT$36.6 billion in the first seven months, followed by mobile debit cards with NT$35 billion, mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) with NT$2.7 billion and electronic stored-value cards with NT$1 billion, the data showed.
Transactions via mobile debit cards reported the second-fastest growth of 2.59 times from NT$13.5 billion a year earlier, the commission said, attributing it to more banks promoting digital savings accounts by encouraging consumers to apply for debit cards and rewarding them with higher interest rates.
Although mobile payments still make up a comparatively small part of non-cash payments, which surpassed NT$3 trillion last year, they are expected to continue growing this year, the commission said.
Taiwan started mobile payment services in 2016, with accumulated transactions reaching NT$299.1 billion as of the end of July, the data showed.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of
RSS