iPASS Benefits from Triple Stimulus Vouchers, Reverses the Impacts of the Pandemic on Physical Consumption

TAIPEI, July 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its establishment, iPASS Corporation has been committed to integrating the various e-tickets used in public transport and extending their use throughout Taiwan. Public transport includes metro systems, Taiwan Railways, buses, BRT systems, long-distance buses, ferries, public bicycles, etc. Starting in 2017, iPASS collaborated with LINE Pay to expand into the P2P digital payment market. LINE Pay stands as a third-party payment service. Due to regulatory issues, users are unable to transfer funds or reload using LINE Pay. However, LINE Pay Money can fill this gap.

As of now, iPASS Corporation has issued more than 30 million iPASS smartcards. In Taiwan, it is ranked second originated from the Taipei Metro. iPASS is keenly aware that EasyCard has the advantage of being first in the market and that the public transportation network in the North is four-times the size of Kaohsiung's metro system. Daily ridership figures in Taipei are fifteen times larger than in Kaohsiung. Therefore, as the latecomer, iPASS's has always focused on differentiation. By launching iPASS Pay with cash reload services in the four largest convenience store chains and introducing iPASS Pay into Taiwan's current leading retailer, Pxmart, iPASS has gradually built its own smart card business ecosystem.

When the pandemic broke out in 2020, ridership in the Taipei metro system decreased by 30%. In the Kaohsiung metro system, it dropped 40%, severely impacting the e-ticket revenues for iPASS. As the pandemic situation worsened, consumers reduced visits to physical stores and gradually switched to online shopping. In the face of sales declines at physical sales channels, in April 2020, iPASS focused its deal promotions and marketing activities on digital payment services offered in online sales channels, online bill payment platforms, and more. In the same month, the company's digital payment business grew in spite of the pandemic, reaching $680 million monthly transaction volume. Following the distribution of Triple Stimulus Vouchers in July 2020, the company launched promotions such as offering credits or LINE POINTS when people tie their vouchers to LINE Pay Money. Membership registrations grew rapidly, increasing by 20% each day. This led to a stable monthly growth of 20%-30% in the first three months after the Triple Stimulus Vouchers were issued.

Triple Stimulus Vouchers had a synergistic effect with iPASS' business endeavors. Compared with the number of the transaction volumes in the second half of 2020, the number in the first half of 2020 increased from 621 million to 1.96 billion per month, nearly a 300% growth rate According to statistics from the Financial Supervisory Commission, the value of mobile payment transactions for the year 2020 grew by 132% compared with 2019. Transactions using mobile e-wallet applications (O2O payments) saw a severalfold increase, surpassing transactions using credit cards tied to mobile wallets for the first time. Tying Triple Stimulus Vouchers to digital payment apps has encouraged people to use mobile payments increasingly energized Taiwan's mobile payment transactions.