Credit and debit cards have replaced cash as the most common payment method in Taiwan, Visa Taiwan Co (台灣威士卡) said in a report on Thursday last week.
A survey of 800 people conducted in August last year showed that about 80 percent of respondents used credit cards daily, while about 77 percent used cash and 58 percent used stored-value cards, such as EasyCards and iPass cards, Visa Taiwan said.
A 2019 study showed that cash was the most popular payment method in the nation, with 91 percent of respondents using cash daily and 83 percent using credit and debit cards, it said.
Photo: Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Times
“Cash is no longer king,” Visa said.
The company attributed the trend to the popularity of contactless payment amid the COVID-19 outbreak, reward point systems by banks issuing credit cards and the booming e-commerce sector.
The recent survey found that only 35 percent of respondents used cash as their main payment method, down from 41 percent in 2019, while 64 percent said that they preferred cashless payment methods for purchases above NT$400 (US$14), up from 58 percent a year earlier.
Fifty-one percent of respondents shopped online at least once per week, up from 50 percent before the COVID-19 pandemic, while 54 percent said that they used online banking, compared with 49 percent before the pandemic, Visa Taiwan said.
Food deliveries, fresh vegetables and meat, and healthcare products were the top three items on people’s online shopping lists, it added.
Separately, German food delivery firm Foodpanda GmbH gained approval from the Investment Commission last week to invest NT$5 billion into local subsidiary Foodpanda Taiwan Co Ltd (富胖達).
The commission also approved another 18 million euro (US$21.85 million) investment by the German company to boost its working capital, the commission said.
The investments showed the rising importance of the food delivery market in Taiwan, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).