Different industries have been finding different ways to adapt to the global digital transformation. For example, customer service centers, which are heavily reliant upon extensive manpower, are now looking to transform because of the difficulties associated with employee training and rising labor costs. The most common tactic of the first call centers to undergo this transformation process was to utilize voice-activated self-service systems, which would allow customers to select the information they need through the click of a button, thereby reducing the wait time and the burden on customer service staff. There are also enterprises that chose to move their customer service centers to cost-competitive areas or outsource the department to professional customer service enterprises in a bid to reduce overall costs.
Remote work becomes the norm and will continue to change every single aspect of our life even in post-pandemic. Phil Libin, cofounder of Evernote and currently CEO of mmhmm shared his insights on post-pandemic trends and advised startups on how to find product-market fit, in a keynote speech on Sept 9, the first-day event of the 2021 US-Taiwan Startup Forum (UTSF), co-sponsored by the North America Taiwan Engineering & Science Association (NATEA) and Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA).
After 12 years as an engineer and salesperson in the semiconductor industry, Andy Lin founded Yo-Kai Express, a food technology startup. Lin has integrated Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology, modular supply chain management, artificial intelligence (AI), and material science to develop a new platform that breaks through the confines of space and time.
The value of the global activewear market was estimated at $353.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a 3.7% CAGR over the next six years, reaching $439.17 billion by 2026, according to investment firm Comprar Acciones. The activewear industry has always been very competitive; staying innovative is key to differentiation.
Hiring employees from many different countries can be a long process of legal and accounting counseling and can keep businesses from accessing foreign markets sound and fast. Singapore-based HR tech startup Slasify offers solutions to legal compliance and payroll transfers. In an interview with DIGITIMES, Slasify CEO Carlos Wang and SparkLabs Taipei managing partner Edgar Chiu are sharing what they see in the HR tech industry.
Climate change is changing many aspects of our everyday life. Transportation is one of them. Seeing the boom of e-bikes and the opportunities of green mobility, Marcel Yang, Giant Bicycles' special assistant to CEO, mentioned that Giant is creating an economic ecosystem in the cycling industry where all the partners can work closely together. He also shared his experience in driving innovations in this bike manufacturing company.
The southeast Asian region has become another innovation hub in the world. With a valuation of US$340 billion in 2020, the region attracts many venture capital firms and startups to innovate the local economies. Rachel Lau, managing partner at RHL Ventures, a Malaysian private investment firm that focuses on growth capital investments in Southeast Asia and the US, shares her insights on the latest innovation trends, brought by major startups in Southeast Asia.
The demand for smart metering and asset tracking solutions is growing. Many countries are adopting many smart techs, especially IoT solutions, to optimize energy consumption and to well manage buildings and facilities. In light of these trends, IoT startup UnaBiz, based in Taiwan and Singapore, developed IoT solutions on smart water/power/gas meters as well as smart tracking of assets and people, for smart management in buildings and industrial/commercial facilities, according to the company's Taiwan managing director Carter Ho at a Digitimes interview.
Industry 4.0 is no longer a new concept, but there are always some parts of the manufacturing process that are so difficult to automate, including quality management or quality assurance (QA). Relimetrics is a startup that offers full-stack computer vision and machine learning software for quality audit, process control and predictive maintenance in Industry 4.0 applications, according to company founder and CEO Kemal Levi. In a recent interview, Levi shared with DIGITIMES about his vision of Relimetrics' role to play in the Industry 5.0 era and their solutions for high-precision QA automation.
eCommerce continues to penetrate the global retail market. Big companies are competing to adopt new technologies in order to win the game, which also provides many new opportunities for startups.
This year marks the fifth Demo Day: The Innovators event, which has helped startups in Taiwan grow and prosper. This year's event will be held by the NTPC-AWS Joint Innovation Center in association with New Taipei InnoSquare. The two organizations have come together to form what is arguably Taiwan's most significant startup accelerator. A total of 19 teams are showcasing their innovative and commercialized solutions this time, covering five major areas: smart healthcare, smart finance, smart manufacturing, smart education, and smart living to jointly demonstrate the future of Taiwan's new innovative technologies.
In the past, TV and print media advertisements have always been the first choice of businesses for brand building. However, with the rapid development of the Internet, which has become an integral part of most consumers' lives, there is a trend of shifting marketing budgets to online media. At present, word-of-mouth marketing has moved from early collaboration with bloggers to collaborating with social media influencers. According to statistics, the global market for word-of-mouth marketing will reach US$13.8 billion by 2021, a growth of more than 50% from 2020. In view of this huge business opportunity, Influenxio has selected Instagram with its open format to establish a one-stop micro-influencer matching platform.
In 2011, the World Economic Forum (WEF) pointed out in its Global Risk Report that data was going to become the most valuable resource of the 21st century. According to a report from the International Data Corporation (IDC), global data volume is projected to grow to 163ZB in 2025, showing a tenfold increase from the 16.1ZB in 2016. The massive amount of data in combination with the rise of big data and data surveying tools mean that uncovering business opportunities from enormous data has already become an essential task for businesses looking to increase their competitiveness. Consequently, this has drawn great focus to data platforms, otherwise known as data management platforms.
The development of IoT has accelerated in recent years, and applications can be seen in the manufacturing, retail, and construction industries. Based on current market trends, IoT still needs to overcome certain issues to be further popularized with the key being connection and integration of devices of different brands. The patented proprietary technology "UltronKEY" used in the Ultron IoT platform released by WiFigarden only requires users to scan the QR code on their home appliances by using their smartphones, and the home appliances can instantly connect to the Wi-Fi network in their home. Users can then be able to control different brands of home appliances with a single app on their phones.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019, the global economy and people's lives have been greatly affected. Going to banks, hospitals, shopping at supermarkets, religious activities, and other daily activities, for example, all came under restrictions. In addition, onsite exhibitions that used to have large crowds have now almost all turned to the online format, including major international exhibitions such as CES and COMPUTEX. Although there are many online exhibition solutions on the market, they all focus on product exhibits and lack a platform for follow-up business opportunities and communication, relying only on traditional email, text customer service, telephone customer service, and video conferencing. These traditional communication modes lack scheduling design and are unable to provide appointment communication services and interactive functions, which in turn weakens the effectiveness of the online exhibition.
Taiwanese software startup Kdan Mobile raised US$16 million in Series B round from investors from South Korea and Japan, looking to take its cloud-based remote signing solutions DottedSign to South Korea by the end of 2021.
