Different media, which seemed to be starkly divided in the past, have seen their boundaries gradually blur while consolidating into the whole "content industry" in the digital era, driven by constant tech advancements and the rise of OTT and other online platforms, according to New Media Entertainment Association (NMEA) chairman Homme Tsai. Therefore, it is hoped that through the establishment of NMEA, exchanges among members of various content segments can proceed based on an integrated thinking approach, so as to accomplish multiple horizontal and vertical integrations and find new momentum for Taiwan's content industry.
Taiwan-based Profet Al's entrepreneurial team comes from foreign software companies, according to the company's general manager Jerry Huang. For the last decade, Profet AI has focused on promoting various types of commercial enterprise-level software. Through its industry connections, it quickly expanded business opportunities during its early years.
Flytech Technology began investing in the StarFab startup accelerator in 2019. The company has two main goals when investing in startups. First, remembering how much societal support Flytech received over the last 40 years, they hope to give back by helping and mentoring startups. Additionally, through the process of investing in startups, Flytech also hopes to introduce new ideas to employees and foster more innovative thinking within the company.
If a startup company can solve finance and talent issues, it will have tackled almost 95% of the problems facing its future growth. AccuHit chief strategy officer (CSO) Mike Wu has said that for startups stressing high efficiency, they initially prefer a flat organizational structure and their first financial issue to address is fundraising, which can allow founders and core teams to verify whether their products can survive in the market. After their business models successfully gain ground in the market, recruiting right talent will be the second issue facing them. Only right talent can help develop better products, solve the pain points of the current market, bring in abundant revenues and accelerate expansion efficiency at startups.
The best time to join an accelerator is when a startup team has created a functional product, and the role of an accelerator is to help startup teams make that product even better, according to Edgar Chiu, co-founder and managing partner at SparkLabs Taipei.
StarFab Accelerator, with team members having scientific, technological and industrial background to understand Taiwan's ICT industrial advantages as well as innovation as a core, aims to integrate various domains of ICT to create business value. The so-called innovation, besides successful acceleration of individual startups, is essentially to create complete entrepreneurship ecosystems to let enterprises' experience in various domains commercialize startups' innovative technologies, a bid to combine the mission of helping startups grow fast with StarFab's expertise, according to StarFab chairman and CEO Amanda Liu.
Founded in 2019, Hive Ventures differentiates itself from fellow venture capital firms by adopting investment + counseling, a business model of making early-stage venture capital investment in startups plus providing counseling services to help them solve clients' crucial problems, according to company co-founder Yan Lee.
Taiwania mainly functions as a national executive team for the Taiwan government's international venture capital investment, with "5 + 2 focus industries" proposed by the National Development Council as target areas of investment: smart machinery, Asia Silicon Valley Development Plan, green energy technology, biotechnology and biomedicine, national defense plus new agriculture and circular economy. Besides venture capital investment, Taiwania has enhanced linkage with entrepreneurship sphere through setting up Taiwania Young Entrepreneurs Academy and other channels to play the role of a partner for startups and help local enterprises in digital transformation, according to Taiwan Capital Management Corporation CEO David Weng.
Wistron attaches great importance to innovation, both within the company and outside of it, according Eric Wu, vice president of Wistron's CVC Office. Since 2010, Wistron has participated in startup activities and investments including Garage+, AppWorks and the Asia America Multi-Technology Association (AAMA). As times change, so have Wistron's investments and partnerships goals. While Wistron focused its investments in verticals related to its existing business units from 2010 to 2015, we began investing in new fields, such as health care and the internet of things (IoT), from 2016 to 2020. Wistron hopes to further develop its health care business.
Taiwan's manufacturing industry has a comprehensive upstream and downstream supply chain structure, as well as an abundance of high-quality professional talent. Industries from machinery, petroleum, plastic and rubber to advanced semiconductors in Taiwan have introduced advanced technology and equipment into their manufacturing processes. However, manufacturers in Taiwan have primarily focused on enhancing production efficiency as part of the B2B business model, according to Joseph Chou, chairman and CEO of PwC Taiwan. As a result, they have emphasized volume-based pricing and provided the most efficient and competitive prices to satisfy customers. Now, Taiwan is facing new challenges as consumer market demand moves toward a new economic model that emphasizes diversification - smaller volume with more diversity. For businesses adjusting to this new model, digital transformation and innovation have become good remedies.
