As more and more Taiwanese shift to online shopping, traditional merchants are losing business. Not long ago, I visited Taipei’s camera district in search of a Fuji X100T, a compact digital camera capable of producing professional-quality images. The X100T is one of only a few cameras Fuji still manufactures in Japan, and is considered superior…
With casino gaming off the table, the economy of the idyllic offshore islands of Penghu is more dependent than ever on shaky seasonal tourism. Citizens of Penghu County voted decisively in October against introducing casino-gaming resorts. By a lopsided margin of 81% to 19%, Penghu rejected casinos for the second time in seven years, likely…
Korea and China are ahead of Taiwan in developing next-generation OLED display technology, which many expect to supplant LCD displays. Domestic companies will be under pressure to increase R&D expenditures to develop innovative new products and explore new applications. Taiwan’s liquid-crystal display (LCD) panel makers have steadily lost market share to Korean and Chinese competitors…
Restrictions on Chinese investment in the semiconductor sector have failed to stymie budding ties among chipmakers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In January, Powertech Technology announced it would annul a share agreement with Tsinghua Unigroup that would have given the Chinese chipmaker a 25% stake in one of Taiwan’s top semiconductor packaging and…
Recent years have brought scant good news for Taiwan’s LCD panel makers. Once the vanguards of the industry, they have ceded that ground to South Korean and, increasingly, Chinese competitors. Yet the launch of 8K resolution television sets represents a glimmer of hope for the Taiwan panel-making industry. 8K resolution is currently the highest resolution…
Chefs have toned down the spiciness to accommodate local taste. Cuisine from China’s southwestern Sichuan province has a well-deserved reputation for intense flavors given its frequent use of chili peppers, numbing Sichuan peppercorns, bean paste, and garlic. Many aficionados of the cuisine insist that the spicier, the better. Anything less than fiery is considered pedestrian….
Taiwan’s steakhouse market has moved upmarket with the arrival of some new restaurants. High-end Western food has long struggled to gain a footing in Taipei. Celebrity chefs known for fusion cuisine, like Singapore’s Justin Quek, have come and gone. Yet one type of pricey Western restaurant has been successful here: the American steakhouse and other…
The drink of choice is usually Japanese whiskey, sometimes in innovative cocktails. Nestled deep in the labyrinthine lanes east of AnHe Road, a luminescent sign in the shape of a target glows red, white, and blue. Look closer and you’ll see that the sign indicates the entrance to a partially hidden bar. Push open the…
The sharing economy relies on shared production or consumption of goods and services, in contrast to the mainstream systems of private ownership. It originated in early Web-based non-profit initiatives such as Wikipedia and Couchsurfing. The first large-scale bike-sharing system was established in Lyon, France in 2005. Taiwan’s own YouBike program was launched in Taipei City…
The company’s Taiwan business is still growing despite being in regulatory limbo and facing mounting opposition from lawmakers and the taxi industry. Brittany Holtsinger swears by Uber. The Taipei-based digital marketing strategist uses the ride-hailing app four to five times a week, opting for a taxi only when Uber’s rush-hour surcharges make its prices less…
