Despite decreased technology demand and geopolitical challenges, domestic chip designers, led by MediaTek, are posting strong sales and benefiting from U.S.-China tensions. Taiwan’s semiconductor firms are often referred to as “chipmakers” because many manufacture the computing brains of electronic devices. But some of the island’s most ascendant semiconductor companies do not make any chips at…
Though domestic tourism is doing well outside Taiwan’s major cities, a lack of clarity on border reopening has left businesses dependent on the international market in limbo. For the past two-and-a-half years, Taiwan’s travel industry has grappled with an uncomfortable truth: Its reliance on international visitors has become a liability amid broad public support for…
More than two million doses of Medigen’s MVC-COV1901 have been administered domestically, but it has yet to gain traction internationally. Meanwhile UBI Pharma’s UB-612 is pending emergency-use authorization in Taiwan. Early in the coronavirus pandemic, Taiwan made a fateful decision: It would develop its own COVID-19 vaccines and make them a key part of its…
Since the pandemic began, Taiwan has developed several herbal formulas that traditional Chinese medicine doctors say are effective in treating COVID-19. The most prominent of these is Taiwan Chingguan Yihau (NRICM101), marketed under the name Respire Aid and developed by Taiwan’s National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine (NRICM). The treatment is made up of ten…
Aggressive local competition and rising geopolitical risk make the contract electronics manufacturing giant’s China dependency more precarious than ever. Hon Hai Precision Manufacturing Co., better known as Foxconn, is the largest private employer in China and has long depended on the country as its manufacturing base. As recently as 2018, Foxconn assembled half of the…
To capture a greater share of the booming digital assets business, Taiwan needs more comprehensive regulation and proactive government support for the industry. During his four years in office, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Jason Hsu spoke of turning Taiwan into a “crypto nation.” It was always a long shot; the island’s financial services…
Taiwan’s first two virtual banks have quickly accumulated customers, and the market is expanding with a third such bank on the way. But Taiwan’s oversaturated banking market will likely require that the digital lenders adopt new tactics and technologies to become truly competitive. Taiwan’s financial industry is known for its conservatism. Firms and regulators alike…
Taiwan’s e-commerce market experienced rapid growth in 2021, driven primarily by the severe outbreak of local infections that summer. Yet as life has more or less returned to normal, the appeal of physical retail regained strength. As a result, companies are now launching business models that merge online and offline channels. As Taiwan flirted with…
The highly transmissible Omicron variant poses clear risks that must be managed, but a roadmap for reopening is still needed. The capricious coronavirus is full of unpleasant surprises, the latest being the ultra-transmissible Omicron variant that threatens to upend Taiwan’s mostly COVID-free existence. With around 18,000 total recorded cases and 850 deaths as of mid-January,…
After surviving the harrowing mid-2021 local COVID-19 outbreak, the capital’s foreign restaurateurs are cautiously optimistic about the coming year. Herban Kitchen was having a stellar 2021. With Taiwan a safe haven from pandemic-induced turmoil, the Taipei vegetarian restaurant hit a three-year sales high in early May. Not only were regulars packing the restaurant, but veggie-loving…
