Visa today launched EMV®Quick Response (QR) Code based payments in Taiwan, enabling more consumers to be able to pay digitally.
In partnership with government, financial institutions, digital wallet providers and merchants, the QR code payment will follow specifications published by EMVCo. This means EMV®QR Code based payment will enjoy the same security and convenience as any existing Visa transaction in Taiwan.
Visa estimates that currently two in five (37 percent) of its cardholders and account holders in Taiwan have access and can use EMV® QR Code based payment. Together with industry partners, it expects to enable more consumers to scan to pay.
Taiwan government aims to reach the goal of 90 percent mobile payment penetration rate by 2025. QR code payment will play a vital role in displacing in the “long tail” of small merchants. Though more than half of face-to-face Visa payment volume in Taiwan (55 percent) are contactless, indicating frequent everyday use, cash is still king on the island.
Marco Ma, General Manager, Visa Taiwan, said: “Central to the success of widespread usage of digital payment, particularly QR code, is interoperability. The ability of different payment platforms to understand and communicate to one another is fundamental to the growth of an open commerce ecosystem. It means any consumer can pay with whichever mobile wallets that follow the EMV® QR Code Specification, and that include visitors to Taiwan.”
Visa’s Consumer Payment Attitudes Study found that Taiwanese consumers visit small merchant at least once a week. While more than 90 percent of these small merchants only receive cash, 44 percent of respondents hope that these merchants accept digital payments, including contactless and QR payments.
Mr. Ma added: “QR code has the potential to significantly accelerate the growth of digital payments acceptance, due to the lower setup cost and easy implementation, eliminating the need for traditional POS hardware. Increased use of digital payments has contributed to meaningful economic growth in Taiwan, with more than USD 1.9 billion or about NTD 59 billion added to the GDP from 2011 to 2015.”
The Consumer Payment Attitudes Study indicated that close to half (49 percent) of Taiwanese consumers have already used QR Code payment, which is higher than Hong Kong (28 percent) and Macau (10 percent); within 51 percent of non-users, there are up to 74 percent of consumers aware of QR Code payment and more than half (51 percent) of respondents interested to try, showing QR Code’s great potential on the island.
According to the same study, Taiwan consumers identify the following benefits of QR payments: no need to carry physical cards (65 percent), time saving (56 percent), and safer transactions (49 percent). For current non-users of QR code payment, the top five areas where they would like to scan and pay are convenience stores (60 percent), bill payments (50 percent), hypermarkets or supermarkets (49 percent), fast food and quick service restaurants (45 percent), and café, food court and small eateries (44 percent).
EMV® QR Code based payments are currently available in 10 mobile wallets: Taiwan Mobile Pay Wallet, Taishin Bank’s CARDaily, Bank SinoPac’s QR Fun Wallet, Standard Chartered’s Mobile Banking, Hua Nan Commercial Bank’s Mobile App, Mega International Commercial Bank’s Mega Pay, Chang Hwa Commercial Bank’s Wallet, First Bank’s e-Action, Taiwan Cooperative Bank’s E Pay, and Taiwan Business Bank’s Mobile Banking.
Visa looks to expand acceptance in five major merchant categories, namely dining, transportation, wet markets, tourism and leisure, and daily frequent purchase. Examples include Taipei Fish Market, Taipei Flower Market, Phoenix Travel Agency, Zhiying Taxi Fleet, Ximending Commercial District and Yongkang Street.
Visa continues to work with Taiwan Mobile Pay Wallet and the government’s digital payment standard to improve the security, convenience and interoperability of Taiwan’s QR code payment ecosystem.