Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) aims to expand revenue by about 16 percent to about NT$200 billion (US$6.49 billion) this year at the earliest, benefiting from rapidly growing nontraditional services such as financial products, online gaming and its momo coin, it said yesterday.
Last year, Taiwan Mobile’s revenue grew at an annual rate of 10 percent to a record-high NT$172.2 billion after its average revenue per user climbed for eight consecutive quarters to NT$697 during the fourth quarter of last year.
With new products such as “buy now, pay later” services, games and wider usage of momo coins, the company expects to soon reach the NT$200 billion mark, company president Jamie Lin (林之晨) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
Telecom financial services are among the fastest-growing businesses, Lin said.
Taiwan Mobile is seeking to work with partners in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam to expand the usage of its momo coin to the Southeastern Asian countries, where many people do not have bank accounts or credit cards, he said.
Less than 10 percent of people in those countries have a bank account and only 2 to 4 percent of them have a credit card, he said.
The telecom expects a “leapfrog effect” in the emerging countries as they embrace new telecom financial services and skip traditional offerings, which have not taken root yet, he said.
The company has set a medium-to-long term goal to expand its financial services business to NT$10 billion, financial department vice president Vincent Wu (吳建頤) said.
This year, the company aims to expand its user base of momo coins by 10 to 20 percent from 600,000 last year, aided by new services, Wu said.
Last month, the company launched its “buy now, pay later” offerings at e-commerce subsidiary Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) and is in talks with potential partners to expand the scope of the services beyond Taiwan Mobile subscribers, he said.
Since its launch, the service has attracted more than 3,000 customers, Taiwan Mobile said.
The company said it expects the pay-later services to be available for most local consumers next year.
Online gaming is also a strong growth driver for the company’s revenue, it said.
It last quarter obtained exclusive rights in Taiwan for two new game titles related to the League of Legends franchise.
That helped boost monthly average users by 310 percent year-on-year last quarter and lifted transactions by 346 percent annually, it said.
Contributions from online gaming spiked 1,109 percent last quarter in terms of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from a year earlier, the telecom said.
That forecast did not factor in contributions from Taiwan Star Telecom Co (台灣之星), the acquisition of which is pending approval from the Fair Trade Commission.
Taiwan Mobile hopes to receive approval from the competition watchdog next quarter at the earliest, Lin said.
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
‘NO DISRUPTION’: A US trade association said that it was ready to work with the US administration to streamline the program’s requirements and achieve shared goals The White House is seeking to renegotiate US CHIPS and Science Act awards and has signaled delays to some upcoming semiconductor disbursements, two sources familiar with the matter told reporters. The people, along with a third source, said that the new US administration is reviewing the projects awarded under the 2022 law, meant to boost US domestic semiconductor output with US$39 billion in subsidies. Washington plans to renegotiate some of the deals after assessing and changing current requirements, the sources said. The extent of the possible changes and how they would affect agreements already finalized was not immediately clear. It was not known
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
RSS