Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Diversifies into Online Shopping

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. has started setting up online stores for 2015, with Taiwan's online shopping market projected to exceed NT$1 trillion (US$33.3 billion) in revenue from 2014's NT$764.5 billion (US$25.4 billion).

Chunghwa's e-store will sell  organic vegetables, foods and cooking oils initially due to  growing consumer distrust islandwide of food safety in the wake of the tainted cooking oil scandal.

The online stores will put shoppers on QR Code and mobile credit payment systems, and the telecom  has contracted 30-plus credit-card issuers to provide customers with downloadable credit app for  payment.

Chunghwa also plans to offer  subscribers utility bill payment on  smartphones, to be easily done by  entering payment amount and credit card access code.

According to Taiwan's non-profit Institute for Information Industry (III), the most widely used online payment tools in Taiwan are credit card, debit card, and stored-value card, which will drive business opportunity for mobile payment apps as Apple Pay, QR Code and near field communication (NFC) in Taiwan.

Other telecoms in Taiwan as  Taiwan Mobile Corp. and Far EasTone Telecom Co., Ltd. are  also branching into online shopping, with Far EasTone  teaming up with online marketing company Hiiir to open the online store FriDay and Taiwan Mobile running myfone.

The said Taiwanese telecoms are taking on specialists from renowned online stores: Far EasTone's executive vice president for online shopping Charlene Hung was formerly Yahoo Kimo's managing director and Amazon's global vice president.

One of Taiwan Mobile's executives for online shopping  handled overseas market development for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Chunghwa has recruited C.H. Yeh, chief operating officer of PChome eBay Co., Ltd., to lead its online store Chunghwa Benefit One Co., Ltd. (KL)