The much familiar GASH will be upgraded to GASH PLUS. Effective March 1st, 2011, GASH PLUS will officially become a independent subsidiary. What did it need to be upgraded and establish as a subsidiary? What new services can it provide to players? G!Voice invited director of GASH PLUS, Lulu who can personally introduce it everyone!
Could you tell us what your view is towards GASH card and was there anything memorable or fun you could tell us about?
LuLu: I have a very simple view towards GASH. I think GASH represents universal value, you may even call it the VISA card in the virtual world. I’d like to tell you two anecdotes as examples. When the physical GASH cards were produced, there were to be sent to each sales channel. However, this posed a problem: logistic companies wouldn’t do business with us because it’s practically like cash delivery. If the driver loses a small stack of cash, he has to pay thousands of NT dollars as compensation. In the end, Gamania had to sign the contract in the same manner as cash delivery truck with the company. In another incident, some distributer couldn’t buy GASH cards anywhere so he held few million NT dollars in cash to our company and asked us to give him the cards. These two stories really stuck with me and made me feel the universal value GASH cards represent.
Was there any particular reason for GASH to become an independent subsidiary?
LuLu: As the leading brand in Taiwan’s game market, GASH has served the game industry for many years. In 2009, Gamania joined Facebook for the first time. Players can play Happy Farm using GASH cards. Gamania realized that GASH can not only be circulated in Taiwan but in the world!
Gamania’s GASH cash flow platform provides value card purchase, storage and transfer services for farmers of Facebook’s “Happy Farm”.
Establishing new subsidiary and changed the name GASH to GASH PLUS was inevitable because timing was right. Once GASH PLUS becomes an independent company, it could work with others in other industries with greater flexibility. Most important thing is, Gamania is an internationalized company that just kicked off its operation in the U.S and Europe. The immediate problem encountered was to find a convenient payment method for players to freely enjoy Gamania’s games. I was thinking, why not GASH? It’s a payment method and it can be launched faster than operation team.
We have quite a bit of Asian players in south-east Asia that play our games and they will try their best to access Gamania’s server though we do not actually have physical operation venue there. There were incidences where these people would fly over to Taiwan to buy GASH cards and sell them in higher price there. Currently, GASH PLUS has set up venues in the south-east Asian market. Now that we’ve entered the market, we’ve paved the way for the entrance of the main force (operation team).
If we had done the global payment three years ago, Gamania’s global transition would’ve been so much easier. But it’s not too late to do it now. Gamania’s catching up, fast. When GASH PLUS reaches its goal to serve global players with one card: when HK players could use GASH PLUS to play Japan’s game, EU players could use it to play Taiwan’s game, the card will be unstoppable, its accessibility and validity will be worldwide.
Becoming a subsidiary serves as a expectation for GASH PLUS to march into the world and satisfy global consumers with its integrated digital advantages. The card is easy to get and easy to use. We expect to become the leading platform of global digital entertainment and at the same time help the group to lay down payment system of global magnitude.
What services GASH PLUS will provide that are different from the past? How will consumers purchase GASH PLUs in the future?
LuLu: In the past GASH only focused on providing game point service but after the upgrade, GASH PLUS will enhance and expand the overall services, content and area-wise.
Like I said earlier, in addition to circulating in Hong Kong, Japan and Korea, we hope that in the future GASH PLUS will become the payment method that can circulate in the world, for all consumers to use.
The service content will extend from online games to including games, video/audio entertainment, comics, social media etc, expanding the scope of entertainment into everyday life.
From providing GD2 card (pin code), GASH card (pin code), Thermal-Sensitive Papers to Micropayment in the future (no pin code required!), users can use the iBon machine at 7-11, enter the account (maybe the email address could be the account) and pay at the cashier or store value directly to their own accounts through any internet platform (computer, Cellphone). In sum, the operation will be much easier and speedy.
From GASH to GASH PLUS, what is the drive that is behind Gamania?
LuLu: GASH PLUs will become Taiwan’s first attempt to globalize cash flow tool. We have greater and speedier vision than other competitors, but most importantly, our drive lies in Albert’s belief that we should never give up and actively seek to develop globally.
Currently Gamania is the number 1 Taiwan online game company that has the most operation venues around the world. We have operations in 7 countries (Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, China, France and Germany) It is also because we laid the ground work much ahead of other competitors in Taiwan and developed Micropayment method that catalyzed the birth of GASH PLUS.
We have the opportunity to do it faster than others in Taiwan, or even in the world. This is the challenge for GASH PLUS in the future. We saw the opportunity, we grabbed it and we owned it. The next step is to see if we could integrate faster than others!
