TAIPEI -- SoftBank on Monday officially launched its humanoid robot Pepper in Taiwan, as the Japanese tech giant seeks to expand sales beyond its home market of the emotionally intelligent gadget that offers services from banking to companionship for the elderly.

During a demonstration of its abilities, Pepper spoke in Mandarin Chinese and responded clearly to questions in the same language, and also showed off its English language capabilities.

Initially, SoftBank will lease Pepper exclusively to corporate clients in Taiwan. (Photo by Cheng Ting-fang)

Initially, SoftBank and its Taiwanese agent are only marketing Pepper to corporate clients, with the financial services sector a main target. No schedule has been set for Pepper's availability to retail customers in Taiwan.

"Turnover is high in Taiwan's services sector, and we are hoping that Pepper can become an immediate help to local companies," Vincent Lin, general manager of Pepper's Taiwanese agent Perobot, told reporters during the launch event on Monday.

Perobot is offering Pepper for hire at the monthly rate of 26,888 New Taiwan dollars ($836) with a minimum contract of two years. In Japan, Pepper is selling at a retail price of 198,000 yen ($1,863) but customers also have to pay extra services and insurance fees of 24,600 yen per month for a minimum period of three years.

Perobot said its target is to lease out 60 units per month by the first half of 2017.

Perobot is a wholly-owned subsidiary of key iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, commonly known as Foxconn Technology Group.

SoftBank enjoys strong ties to Taiwan as manufacturing giant Foxconn makes Pepper for the Japanese company.

Looking to the next stage of expansion, SoftBank has set up a joint venture with Foxconn and Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding to market Pepper worldwide.

While SoftBank has recently announced a deal to acquire British chip designer ARM, Pepper runs on an Intel core processor.