Internet-only banks could potentially serve a credit-strapped young demographic that prefers to bank online, but what will be the effect on an already saturated banking sector? Taiwan is overbanked. Its 37 banking institutions operate roughly 5,000 branches for a population of about 23 million people. Because the sector’s US$1.6 trillion in assets are spread among…
The competition for market share for mobile-wallet business is intensifying as consumers increasingly settle transactions with their smartphones. Taiwan’s convenience stores have always lived up to their name – with one exception. They refuse to take most debit or credit cards. Besides cash, for years the only way to pay at a convenience store was…
Younger Taiwanese have a very different approach to work than previous generations. Companies are looking for the best ways to adapt. Since the start of Taiwan’s manufacturing age half a century ago, the same ethos has permeated most companies’ corporate culture. Decision-making is concentrated at the top, absolute loyalty is expected from employees, and overtime…
More expatriate professionals are coming, but they are often confronted with red tape and a conservative corporate culture. California native Ryan Terribilini moved to Taipei over a year ago to set up his own fintech firm after he received a Taiwan Entrepreneur Visa, designed to streamline the process for foreigners starting businesses on the island….
Taiwan’s three Science-based Industrial Parks – the Hsinchu Science Park in northern Taiwan, Central Taiwan Science Park centered in Taichung, and Southern Taiwan Science Park centered in Tainan – have provided a nurturing base of operations for the country’s high-tech industries. The advantages of locating within a science park include: One-stop Service. Companies need to…
Taiwan’s producers must move up the value chain as Chinese competitors undercut them on price in the mass market. The optoelectronics sector, a fixture in Taiwan’s science parks, has faced intensifying competition from China in recent years. Like the Taiwanese before them, the Chinese have focused on making products of acceptable quality at a low…
Since the first park opened in Hsinchu in 1980, the emphasis has been on accommodating manufacturers of technology hardware products. That focus is expected to start changing, as Taiwan’s industrial upgrading puts more stress on software, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Over the decades, much of Taiwan’s success as a global manufacturing…
With their heavy exposure to China, Taiwanese tech firms are feeling the bite of the U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. For years, China bears warned Taiwanese tech firms about their dependence on the Chinese market. A deep recession in China or a cross-Strait relations crisis could spell trouble for companies overly reliant on Chinese manufacturing…
Adroit marketing and retailing have helped China’s top handset makers boost sales in Taiwan, but concerns about data security are mounting. Among smartphone brands, Taiwanese consumers have long favored Apple, which holds a little over one-quarter of the market. Samsung follows with almost 19%, according to data from German research firm GFK Global. Subsidies from…
To become Asia’s blockchain hub, Taiwan will need to overcome bureaucratic inertia and stiff competition from Singapore and Hong Kong. Cryptocurrency is dead. Long live blockchain. That’s the growing consensus among all but the most ardent crypto bulls as governments move to crimp virtual currency but explore uses for its underlying distributed ledger technology. Bitcoin,…
