ACpay Co Ltd (交流資服), a fintech firm devoted to providing payment and e-commerce service solutions, is set to list on Taiwan’s Emerging Stock Board on Friday next week at NT$34 per share, as local retailers and restaurants embrace digital transformation.
Created in 2020 with capital of NT$131 million (US$4.06 million), the Taipei-based company counts food and beverage chain La Kaffa International Co (六角國際), memory module maker Adata Technology Co (威剛科技), HIM International Music Inc (華研國際) and the government’s National Development Fund (國發基金) as its major investors, ACpay chairman Tesla Chen (陳彥甫) told a news conference in Taipei.
“A business turning point would come in the first quarter of next year, allowing the company to break even in the third quarter,” Chen said, adding that the goal is possible once its gross merchandise value reaches NT$6 billion.
Photo: Ou Yu-hsiang, Taipei Times
Payment solutions currently generate 70 percent of the company’s revenue, but would moderate to 33 percent from next year, as e-commerce and subscription fees gain equal importance, Chen said.
Toward that end, it spent NT$30 million this year integrating its e-commerce iCarry and third-party payment ACpay businesses so that its income sources would expand to subscription fees linked to its value-added content, and data analysis, advertisements and profit-sharing, he said.
Taiwan’s retail market expanded 11.1 percent from NT$3.85 trillion before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 to NT$4.28 trillion last year, aided by the ease and convenience of online shopping, Chen said.
At the same time, transactions carried out on PCs and smartphones spiked 71.6 percent from NT$283.7 billion to NT$493 billion, as consumers grew increasingly comfortable with online shopping, he said.
The figures suggest huge business potential for ACpay, Chen said.
The National Development Fund is providing financial support as it shares the need to speed up digital transformation at local retailers, eateries, gift shops and other relatively small business operators, he said.
Chia Te Bakery Co (嘉德糕餅), known for its pineapple cakes, became a customer partly to guard against customer data breaches, Chen said, adding that ACpay’s customers include 7-Eleven convenience store chain operator President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空) and barbeque restaurant chain Hutong Yakiniku (胡同燒肉).
ACpay also integrates bonus points and coupons on behalf of its customers, he said.
Such services could help boost business revenue by 15 percent during a sales season, he added.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) plans to start mass-producing its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip in the first quarter of next year, even as it struggles to make enough chips due to US restrictions, two people familiar with the matter said. The telecoms conglomerate has sent samples of the Ascend 910C — its newest chip, meant to rival those made by US chipmaker Nvidia Corp — to some technology firms and started taking orders, the sources told Reuters. The 910C is being made by top Chinese contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) on its N+2 process, but a lack
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
RSS