Behind the two crashes that sank the company were some critical business mistakes. For Taiwan’s erstwhile No. 3 carrier, TransAsia Airways, the end came mercifully. For nearly two years before it declared bankruptcy last November, TransAsia had struggled to fill flights, its load capacity falling to 60%. Even slashing prices to as little as NT$1,500…
The ride-hailing app is now partnering with licensed car-rental companies in Taiwan. Ride-hailing app Uber returned to Taiwan in April after a two-month suspension of its services, this time in partnership with licensed car-rental companies. In a break with Uber’s standard business model, drivers’ companies set the fares – and non-professional drivers are barred from…
The central government has given Kenting’s only airport one final chance to prove its viability. The best beaches on the island of Taiwan are in Kenting National Park, an isolated nook of the Hengchun Peninsula near the country’s southernmost point. To get there from Taipei requires a two-hour journey on the high-speed rail to Kaohsiung,…
Local authorities are pressing for Ching Chuan Kang to be upgraded to international airport status. Taoyuan Airport provides the majority of Taiwan’s international flight service. Taipei City’s Songshan Airport, Kaohsiung Airport, and Taichung Airport offer limited international service to Asian destinations. But since a flash flood disrupted service at Taoyuan Airport in June 2016, Taichung…
Given the downtown airport’s ownership structure and importance in serving Taiwan’s outlying islands, closing it would be problematic. Originally from Xindian, Alex Tsai is the manager of a bed and breakfast in the offshore island-county of Penghu and travels to Taipei up to five times a year to visit family and friends, shop, and take…
In recent months, the public faceoff between ride-hailing app Uber Technologies and Taiwanese regulators has at times overshadowed the many ways in which the United States and Taiwan are working together in the digital economy. The collaboration covers a number of digital-economy initiatives first outlined in a Digital Economy Forum held in Washington, D.C. in…
The social-networking juggernaut has a higher penetration rate in Taiwan than anywhere else in the world. When Aaron Turner gets a new wine or beer product, the first channel he uses to promote it is Facebook. The sale of alcohol online is forbidden in Taiwan, but marketing is permitted. That means Turner, the founder and…
Massive fines have forced the popular ride-hailing app to suspend its Taiwan operations from February 10. In Taiwan, the end of the road for Uber came swiftly. The ride-hailing app juggernaut, which is the world’s largest startup by valuation, suspended services here in February after being fined more than NT$1 billion (around US$31 million) in…
So far, regulators have been more concerned about the risks of financial innovation than the rewards. Financial industry observers see big potential for Taiwan in the nascent fintech sector, citing the ways in which emerging technologies could help the banking and insurance components of the nation’s financial conglomerates share information safely and efficiently. A special…
Despite regulatory travails, Alibaba’s C2C e-commerce platform is steadily finding a niche with young, bargain-hunting shoppers. When she wants to shop for clothes, Carrie Chen picks up her smartphone and clicks on the Taobao app. The Chinese e-commerce portal – which is owned and operated by e-commerce giant Alibaba – lists hundreds of thousands of…
