Greater China POS terminal offer 2010

Additional Information

Executive Summary

With the development of bank cards, many industrialists from Greater China (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau) have seen an opportunity of the EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer Point of Sale) or POS terminal market.

Many companies in China have the appropriate set of skills to develop and market POS terminals. These companies have an ability to develop and integrate electronics, to manufacture electronic devices, and to develop software tools.

Another positive factor comes from the Chinese government and institutions, namely People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and China UnionPay (CUP) have set up programs to develop and expand card payment. The Chinese domestic card market is dynamic with more than 1.8 billion magstripe cards already distributed. More than 1.4 million merchants are already equipped with around 2.1 million POS terminals. Taiwan and Hong Kong markets are equally dynamic, with large card issuers, and established acquirers and merchant network structures.

These factors combined lead to a very dynamic POS terminal market in the Greater China region.

However, most Chinese POS terminal vendors lack expertise on payment systems, especially on smart card based security principles and procedures. Chinese POS terminals developers have not yet reached the same level of expertise as the global market leaders in terms of end-to-end security, and mastering of all aspects of a POS terminal lifecycle, including conception, production, useful life and destruction.

For these reasons, and also to limit investment in research and development, most Greater China POS terminal industrialists have chosen to use chipset supplied by a few sources (Atmel and Maxim) rather than to develop their own POS Terminal from scratch. This choice allows many POS Terminal vendors to be able to deliver products with a limited lead time, and to pass interoperability and security certifications. On the other hand, this development choice means these vendors build little expertise, and do not master the evolution of the core functions of their products.

So far, Greater China POS terminal vendors have a limited market presence on export markets, as their products have not yet reached the same level of integration, security and flexibility as those of major international vendors. Greater China POS terminal vendors will have to raise their expertise level in payment systems to increase their market presence.

Then, they will represent a threat to major POS terminal vendors, as they benefit from a huge domestic market, a low-cost efficient industrial tool and reactivity following the evolution of specifications.

The “Greater China POS terminal offer 2010” study covers in detail the products of major POS vendors based in Greater China (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau). It includes information about these industrialist and their products, and includes the relation between their products and the chipsets they integrate.