Tag: transition
AGTech Expands into the Greater Bay Area Fintech Market after the Completion of Macau Pass Acquisition
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Since granted the financial license by the Macau SAR Government in 2006, Macau Pass has been propelling the development of a more convenient local electronic payment and promoting its popularity in Macau. Macau Pass, being the leading payment service provider in Macau, issued the first and the most commonly used contactless smart card for payments in Macau, Macau Pass Card ("MP Card"). While initially used in bus fare payment system, its usage has later been expanded into a wide range of payments such as those for other public transports, car parks, government services, retail consumptions, and food and beverage services. There are currently more than three million MP Cards in issue.
The first mobile payment platform in Macau, Macau e-wallet ("MPay"), was subsequently issued by Macau Pass, it was an innovated product which led Macau into the development of e-payment. The major functions of MPay cover on-line and off-line payments, transfers, utility payments like telephone, water, electricity and gas bills and public transports. Currently over 90% of Macau residents are registered MPay users. Its cross-border operation between Hong Kong and Mainland China has been approved by the People's Bank of China and the Monetary Authority of Macao ("AMCM") in 2019, the first financial institution having offshore headquarters to be granted the right to use its offshore e-wallet across the border in Mainland China. The completion of the acquisition will create tremendous synergies to AGTech's existing businesses and broaden the revenue base of the Group through integrations along the value chain.
"As a local business, Macau Pass's years-long investment in the community and economy of Macau has borne fruitful results, and is fully recognized and highly appreciated by AGTech." praised Mr. Sun Ho, Chairman and CEO of AGTech. "Over the years, Macau Pass has been actively involving in local fintech industry, expanding its e-payment applications to different levels of Macau people's daily lives. AGTech shares Macau Pass's ideology of livelihood services-oriented. While enabling a stable transition of Macau Pass, we will cooperate with the local government to turn Macau into a smart city of the 21st century. Through innovation, we will strive to facilitate the integration of Macau Pass, and will invest more resources into integrated payment scenarios that combine on-line and off-line payments, as well as to create a hybrid platform that integrates mobile payment, e-commerce and local services for users and merchants. We will expand mobile payment services to support merchants and SMEs to leverage its advantages in order to speed up services and the development of digitization and intelligence management to meet the increasing consumer demand in the Greater Bay Area. This can provide users with stable, secure and efficient mobile payment experiences, while giving Macau our support in its next new phase of digital economy."
According to AMCM's figures published in February this year, the number of mobile payment transactions in Macau has increased from approximately 65.5 million in 2020 to approximately 193 million in 2021, representing a year-on-year increase of 194%; the total transaction value has increased from approximately MOP 6.3 billion in 2020 to approximately MOP 18.5 billion in 2021, representing a year-on-year increase of 192%. These figures showcase increasing trends in both the frequency and the transaction value of mobile payments in Macau.
"The completion of Macau Pass acquisition marks an important milestone for AGTech. It lays a solid foundation for the Group's future strategic expansion into payment business and financial services ecosystem. Under the policy of "Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area", we believe that Macau Pass will become the leader of local fintech innovation to propel the appropriate diversification of Macau's economy and the growth of local fintech industry. At the same time, it can also deepen the interconnection of mobile financial infrastructure of Macau, Greater Bay Area, Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone and Mainland China. From here, we are preparing ourselves to tap into a market with 1.4 billion potential users and to jointly explore overseas opportunities and facilitate international grand economic cycle." added Mr. Sun Ho.
About AGTech Holdings Limited
AGTech was incorporated in Bermuda and its shares are listed on the GEM (Stock Code: 08279). As a member of the Alibaba Group, AGTech is the exclusive lottery platform of Alibaba Group and Ant Group.
For more information, please visit www.agtech.com
Copyright 2022 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. www.acnnewswire.comAGTech Holdings Limited ("AGTech" or the "Group", SEHK: 08279) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Macau Pass Holding Ltd. ("Macau Pass") and its subsidiaries, which will become an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of AGTech after completion of the transaction.
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Located in the far northeastern suburbs of Dallas, Texas, Melissa High School provides numerous creative opportunities for students to exercise ... Read more Buy Junk Food, New Organs, And Clone Yourself At The Gas Station Of The Future In Flat Eye
America's gas stations aren't always pretty to look at. They can often be a grimey lens into people's most basic, and at times, unflattering needs. We rely on them when we're desperate for a bathroom, or when we need to buy junk food, cigarettes, questionable beer, and a lottery ticket to pin hopes and dreams on before filling our car with gas and speeding off like we were never there to begin with.
Developer Monkey Moon's new game, Flat Eye, looks at the gas station of the future--a very believable, even dystopian, future.
It takes place in a world on the brink of becoming a utopia, one where machines are sufficient replacements for human labor. Think self-checkouts, self-cleaning toilets, kiosks that take your order, and machines that make your breakfast sandwich before popping it out a little window. It's a world where you seldom have to come face-to-face with a working human being.
In this alternate future, gas stations (branded as Flat Eyes) are still the place where you get junk food, gas, and use the bathroom, but it's also where entirely new technology is used and showcased, so Flat Eyes are also referred to as "automobile fill-up stations and technological access points." So as well as filling up gas and buying bad hot dogs, you can buy new organs from an organ vending machine, receive medical treatment from an automated medical module, or even clone yourself.
The game is a management sim where you overlook the needs and expansion of a Flat Eye location, where you point-and-click from an overhead view (though the camera is fully moveable), clicking on modules, and dragging and dropping things in place on a grid-like layout. In my short hands-on demo, I ordered a human employee to restock the shelves, repair equipment, and install new amenities like toilets, self-checkouts, and medical modules, all while cashing out other customers in the process. The customers are depicted as colorful, albeit characterless, silhouettes that scurried in and out to use the bathroom or cash out.
Flat Eye takes a hard look at humanity's increasing dependency on technology. It depicts a scenario in which humans themselves become as automated and as mechanical as the very machines they rely on to exist through their day-to-day lives. Despite its bleak view of a possible future, developer Monkey Moon was clear in conveying it wanted to ultimately tell a positive story of humanity. Humans embody more of a machine-like presence in Flat Eye, operating on autopilot through a clean, perfect-looking world. But it's still not without its distinct characters and personalities.
As you manage Flat Eye, special customers will visit, giving you the opportunity to talk to them and navigate branching conversations that present glimpses into the lives of those who inhabit this pseudo-utopian world. When I had initially felt like a floating manager ordering around an employee, these branching conversations had suddenly felt intimate as I was choosing the employee's responses. It's also during these conversations where you interact with Flat Eye's AI, a character that I will not spoil, but one I anticipate will have a strong role in the game's somewhat mysterious narrative.
It's in the introduction to this AI and the conversation with it that I was left most eager to see where Flat Eye will go next. There's a dual narrative working alongside an already interesting management sim here.
At the end of each day, you are able to dive into the data of the Flat Eye's productivity and receive an overall score for how well you did. It's also during the transition between days that you'll have an opportunity to look through emails from Flat Eye's corporate executives and look at messages within the company sent between other gas stations--a humanizing element in a rather detached position as a lowly clerk.
Developer Monkey Moon is building a knack for telling stories through the lens of working-class characters that rarely get the spotlight in games. In its previous title, Night Call, you played as a cab driver in Paris, hearing the stories of his passengers, engaging in conversation, and divulging in the intricacies of people's most intimate stories. But like Flat Eye, Night Call goes beyond its surface level, with layered narratives and themes at play throughout.
Despite my short time with the game, its concepts, themes, and mechanics clicked instantly. Furthermore, seeds were planted for a greater overarching story that seems to be heading towards a redemptive look at a dystopian future.
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