The more user data is accumulated, the more accurate the system will become, in line with the AI’s learning function, Fujitsu said.

A trial run of the system will begin as early as this month, with Fujitsu aiming for practical application in fiscal 2019. It will be jointly conducted with EXest, a company based in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, that operates WOW U, an English-language website that introduces guide services to foreign visitors.

Those using the AI system during the trial will provide answers on seven points, such as their age and the goal of their travel, via the WOW U website. The system will then suggest multiple options from among 280 sightseeing spots from Hokkaido to Okinawa.

The AI will base its analysis on such information as data collected ahead of time by survey from about 1,000 foreign nationals, and the opinions of guides and others nationwide who are registered on the WOW U website.

With growing opportunities, smartphone-based payments have drawn interest from multiple players including information and technology companies, credit card companies and the government.

It is still unclear which mobile payment service will eventually dominate Korea, where smartphones are ubiquitous. Amid rising competition, Korea’s mobile payment services are becoming more diverse and segmented every year.

From N Pay to QR Pay : In Korea, the mobile payment model was initially launched as a way to make the online credit card payment process easier. With this goal, mobile giant Kakao introduced Kakao Pay in 2014, while Naver, Korea’s leading portal site operator, launched N Pay in 2015.

Similar to US-based Paypal, users register their credit cards on N Pay or Kakao Pay, and they are then able to make purchases at compatible online shopping sites using just a passcode or fingerprint scanning, bypassing the complex authentication process previously required for online card purchases.

Credit card companies also launched standalone “app cards” that facilitate quick card payments in mobile and online settings.

At the same time, smartphone manufacturer Samsung Electronics began popularising the offline mobile payment model with the launch of Samsung Pay in 2015.

Using near field communication and magnetic secure transmission technologies, the system lets people make credit or debit card payments by placing smartphones near card terminals.

Samsung Pay has since grown quickly in Korea, where a vast portion of the population uses high-end Samsung smartphones. In March 2018, Samsung announced that Samsung Pay had surpassed a total of 10 million users and hosted more than 18 trillion won ($17.02 billion) in cumulative transactions in Korea.

While this business continues to develop, Korea has begun to embrace another form of mobile payment: the QR code payment system in which people pay by scanning barcodes that connect straight to bank accounts.

It has been touted as a game-changing payment method that could replace cash and reduce transaction service fees, disrupting the traditional card-based payment paradigm.

The QR payment model is still new in Korea, with related services introduced just last year. However, several players, including the government, have stepped into the QR payment business, fueling debate over which service will succeed.

Competition drives QR payment market: Currently in the lead is Kakao Pay, which launched a QR payment option in May 2018. A user can use the Kakao mobile app to scan a barcode, after which the corresponding amount of cash is withdrawn from an account and sent to a store or merchant.

As of December 2018, Kakao QR Pay had 190,000 partner stores and had handled 3 trillion won in transactions, according to Kakao Pay.

Eyeing the benefits of QR pay systems, the government has launched a similar mobile payment app called Zero Pay, in an effort to reduce card payment-processing costs for small merchants and store owners to near zero.

The platform is currently in beta mode and will be officially launched in March.

To incentivize more consumers to use Zero Pay, the government has promised a 40 percent deduction in income tax for those who use the pay platform.

It is a vast improvement from the 15 percent tax exemption rate applied to credit card usage.

Striking back, three Korean credit card companies—BC Card, Shinhan Card and Lotte Card—have teamed up to launch a QR code scan payment service of their own. Under the “merchant-presented mode,” customers would be able to pay by scanning QR codes at partner stores. The service is slated to be introduced this month.

Like Kakao Pay and Zero Pay, the card companies’ QR code option facilitates payments by drawing money from connected bank accounts. The difference here is that payment requests would be accumulated and paid in full on the monthly due date, similar to how credit cards work.

The card firms have also designed their QR code scanning system to match the standard stipulated by the Financial Services Commission. This means other local card firms can use the same QR scanner terminals to host mobile payments.

The QR payment service that attracts more businesses and consumers will ultimately dominate the market. But market watchers say the task may prove challenging in a country where other forms of mobile payment, like Samsung Pay, are already popular.

While the market is becoming more segmented, Korea’s mobile payment business as a whole is growing. According to the 2017 Electronic Pay Service Usage report released last year by the Bank of Korea, 2.12 million won worth of mobile payment transactions were made daily in 2017, up 147.4 per cent on-year.

The total volume of payments facilitated by simplified mobile pay services reached a record 67.2 billion won, up 158.4 percent from 2016, according to the BOK.

In addition, the proportion of offline payments in the overall simplified mobile payment realm increased from 46.5 per cent in 2016 to 55.6 percent in 2017, overtaking online payments.

It hopes that by establishing environmental standards that such models should meet, carmakers will be motivated to develop more EVs and other environmentally friendly vehicles, sources said.

The move will likely affect how car taxes are calculated. For this reason, automakers are expected to compete fiercely to develop new models that can meet the envisaged criteria.

The government set the current standards to urge automakers to achieve fuel efficiency goals, as part of measures against global warming. They took effect in fiscal 2011 and are known as the “fiscal 2020 standards” because the aim is to achieve them by that fiscal year.

Under the current standards, mainly gasoline-powered vehicles and hybrid models are subject to reduced taxes. In the case of a 1.5-ton gasoline-powered car, it must drive at least 17.6 kilometers on a liter of gasoline to meet the standards. Though many vehicles already meet the criteria, the government plans to set higher fuel efficiency levels for gasoline-powered vehicles and other models, sources said.

The new standards are expected to be compiled as early as this spring after discussions by expert panels of the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry and the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry.

The target year for achieving the new standards will likely fall sometime from fiscal 2027 to fiscal 2030, according to sources.

In the case of EVs, the government will set the environmental standards based on figures such as one calculated by multiplying the electric power consumption rate — the amount of electricity required to drive one kilometer — with a certain coefficient to convert the rate into an equivalent amount of gasoline.

EVs and PHVs are being included in the new standards because they are expected to be used widely in the future.

Currently, about 10 EV and about 20 PHV models are sold nationwide. New car sales of EVs and PHVs in fiscal 2017 were about 60,000 units. The figure accounts for only about 1 percent of new car sales, but is double the amount sold in fiscal 2016.

Automakers will be required to sell a certain number of vehicles that meet the new standards by a predetermined fiscal year.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said the annual event, which marks the fourth of its kind, is the largest drone-related convention in Asia. It will run for three days through Saturday.

South Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co took part in the event, unveiling a new communication service that is capable of livestreaming videos shot by drones through a fifth-generation network.

Engineering Inc displayed a drone controller that can be activated easily with only one hand. Established in 2016, the startup raised 7 billion won (Bt195.39 million, $6.2 million) in investments last year.

Doosan Mobility Innovation announced it will mass-produce a drone that can run on hydrogen fuel cells. The firm said if drones with lithium batteries can fly 20 to 30 minutes, those with hydrogen |fuel cells can stay aloft for up to 2 hours.

Other local organisations and research centers also shared the latest achievements in the drone industry, including delivery drones as well as those for military purposes.

The ministry said South Korean plans to provide various support to drone firms to foster the industry.

Under the so-called regulatory sandbox programme , which centres on encouraging local companies to seek innovation and new opportunities by reducing regulations, the ministry said local firms will be given more leeway as long as safety is guaranteed.

“The government plans to actively utilize the regulatory sandbox program to remove hurdles in terms of launching new drone-related services by the private sector,” the ministry added.

“(In Sweden and rest of Europe), we don’t see the kind of application of facial recognition technology in digital payments seen in China. It’s so cool. It’s really interesting,” said Elisabeth Orn Sylve, an executive of Microsoft Corp in Sweden.

She made the remarks during her visit to the booth of Freshippo, a robot-driven restaurant and supermarket operated by China-based Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.

Freshippo made its debut at the RBS 2019, organised by the United States National Retail Federation. It showcased its unmanned checkout devices that use features like facial recognition and camera surveillance.

“We have a number of advantages compared with other countries in the world” as China’s mobile internet witnesses rapid development, said Xulin Guo, chief of staff and business assistant to the CEO of Freshippo.

Alibaba has rolled out more than 10,000 self-checkout machines at its own offline stores and stores operated by third parties since the launch of the product around a year ago, according to Freshippo.

It is estimated that a self-checkout machine would be able to do the job of three to six cashiers. Consumers could save 30 percent on time while paying for their shopping.

Alibaba has opened around 120 Freshippo-branded supermarkets in around 20 Chinese cities since the opening of the first store in January 2016. The expansion is seen as Alibaba’s latest testament to the New Retail concept.

New Retail refers to the integration, or interlinking, of online and offline shopping using modern technologies, data and customer engagement techniques.

It is a faddish term coined in 2016 by Alibaba’s charismatic founder Jack Ma. In his words, New Retail is blurring or even dissolving the distinction between shopping at physical stores and e-commerce.

“Although online retail will continue to grow, the share of shoppers’ online spends in their overall spending is expected to remain at the same level,” said Matthew Crabbe, Asia-Pacific research director of consultancy Mintel. “That means, online retailers need to combine online-offline offerings in order to continue growth.”

Agreed Wu Weijia, an equity analyst who focuses on internet-based businesses at ICBC International Holdings Ltd. She said the inevitable slowdown in online shopping volumes has forced internet giants to march into offline retail, which accounts for roughly 85 percent of China’s 36.6 trillion yuan ($5.3 trillion) retail market.

Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd also did a bit of tech muscle-flexing by pioneering unmanned convenience stores. It heralded cashierless retail through vending machine solutions like EasyGo, Miss Fresh and CityBox.

In the new format, a customer walks in, grabs an item, and leaves the store. A storefront scanner, meanwhile, reads information in a chip embedded in the product tag, and sends the bill to a mini program in the customer’s WeChat app.

Consumers must also authorise WeChat at first to access relevant personal information and are advised to follow the brands’ official account, a newsfeed service embedded in WeChat. This is a route commonly adopted by digital-based companies.

Tencent also invested an undisclosed sum in French supermarket chain Carrefour SA, and picked up a stake in Dalian Wanda Group, which owns commercial properties, malls and hotels around China.

As the third-largest internet firm in the world by revenue and a major e-commerce platform, JD has cutting-edge technological applications at more than 100 drone bases across China, said Harlan Bratcher, global business development head of JD Fashion, at an RBS 2019 dialogue.

JD has introduced pilot drone-enabled delivery of goods in mountainous areas in Southwest China, opened about 20 unmanned stores in China and another one in Indonesia.

Elsewhere, the rapid development of e-commerce in China and the US has given birth to a fast-growing business in cross-border payments involving e-commerce platforms and online stores.

Citcon, a payment partner of Chinese e-commerce payment giant Alipay and WeChat Pay in North America, said it has partnered with more than 5,000 top merchants in the US.

The transaction costs via Citcon would be as much as 40 percent lower than that by international credit cards, without fraud and chargeback liability for merchants to accept Alipay and WeChat Pay, according to the company.

Over the past two years, “we’ve witnessed how retailers in North America embrace and succeed with Chinese mobile payment solutions Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay”, based on QR code payments, said Citcon in a press release.

While Citcon works to enable international merchants to accept Chinese QR code-based mobile wallets in-store and online, a number of banks operating in the US are working with third-party payment companies to enable Chinese sellers to collect payments from US e-commerce platforms like Amazon, eBay, Wish and others.

Bank of China’s New York branch launched a cross-border payment system named e-MPay in 2016 in cooperation with a third-party payment processor. Chinese sellers with a presence on Amazon, eBay and other platforms only need to pay around 1 percent of commission fees now, lower than the previous 3 percent to 5 percent, while business cycles have shortened to one working day from one or two weeks, according to Bank of China’s New York branch.

The fast-growing business also drew the participation of Citibank, according to industry insiders.

At the RBS 2019, Counect International Technology Ltd, a Beijing-based maker of data collection devices and offline mobile payment devices, showcased its flagship device Cube, which is designed to be installed at malls and stores.

“Cube drew great interest and good feedback from system integrators, governmental authorities,” said Hans Yu, founder of Counect International. The device has been used by the Malaysian government to monitor sales and taxation, in addition to utilisation in more than 60 Chinese cities, said Yu.

Chinese internet giants like Alibaba and Tencent are making strides in cross-border payments in a bid to facilitate Chinese tourists in their outbound travels. For instance, Alibaba’s Alipay now accepts renminbi-denominated payments in 200 economies, easing people’s hassle and reducing potential costs incurred by currency conversions.

China has been a leading force in applying artificial intelligence, robotics, drones and other cutting-edge technologies in different scenarios.