Why add 時点 to a (year / month / day) date?

Question

In a document about a new business service, I noticed that 時点 was suddenly added to a date. Here is the context:

2000年10月にAAAサービスを開始した。 2001年2月19日時点で、2500万人のユーザーと、194万箇所の加盟店をもつ。

時点 is not needed, but it adds an emphasis on that date? Like an exclamation mark?
A few other parts of this doc sound strange to me and maybe this is a bad translation from the English original?

Not a big deal but that type of 時点 after a year / month / day date would never be necessary, and is there to provide emphasis?

Answer 1

It is similar to "As of" i.e. on a particular date. I think the author wants to state what it is like of the service on the particular date.

I mean they want to compare how widespread service is between its start and the particular date using 時点. (i.e. At the duration of Period : "2000年10月 - 2001年2月19日", the service was used by 2500万人のユーザーと、194万箇所の加盟店).

Answer 2

it adds an emphasis on that date

No, it has a meaning. Without this 時点, this sentence would look unnatural. Without 時点, 「2001年2月19日に2500万人のユーザーを持つ」 might look like the company acquires the 25M users at once on this date.

This 時点で is like English "as of" as in "as of 2015". It "focuses" on the certain time point of something that naturally changes over time. For example, 現時点で means "at the moment", and it is more nuanced than 今 ("now") in that it implies the situation might change soon in the future.