DIGITAL MEDIA ACROSS ASIA - Recently Updated Pages

Iran: Media Landscape

danielleong — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:55:07 CST

---------------------------------------------------------------Navigation Bar Picture Credits: elihesamian

Philippines: Demographics

zhileiten — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:52:01 CST

Contents

Geography
People

In the 16th century, the Philippines Islands were part of the Spanish colony but they were surrendered to the United States in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. In 1935, Manuel Quezon was elected president when Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth and his task was to prepare the country for independence after a ten-year transition. During World War II, the islands feel under the Japanese but the US forces and Filipinos fought to regain control and succeeded. The Republic of the Philippines attained its independence on 4th July 1946 and Manuel Acuña Roxas was the first president of the independent republic.

Geography

Philippines is located in Southeastern Asia, in the archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam.

Area

Total – 300,000 sq km
Land – 298, 270 sq km
Water – 1830 sq km

Climate

Tropical Marine; northeast monsoon (November – April); southwest monsoon (May to October).

Environmental issues

Uncontrolled deforestation in watershed areas; soil erosion; air and water pollution in major urban centers; coral reef degradation; increasing pollution of mangrove swamps that are important fish breeding grounds.

Source: http://jesus-messiah.com/philippines/map-of-philippines.gi

People

Populatation

Total Population – 9,983 million (estimated 2009)
Density – 306.6 km2

Sex Ratio At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female · Under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female · 15-64: 1 male(s)/female · 65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female Total population: 1 male(s)/female (est. 2009)

Sex Ratio

At birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
· Under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
· 15-64: 1 male(s)/female
· 65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
Total population: 1 male(s)/female (est. 2009)

Age Median Total: 22.5 years Male: 22 years 23 years (est. 2009)

Age

Median

Total: 22.5 years
Male: 22 years
23 years (est. 2009)

Ethnic Groups

Tagalog: 28.1%
Cebuano: 13.1%

Ilocano: 9%
Bisaya/Binisaya: 7.6%
Hiligaynon Ilongo: 7.5%
Bikol: 6%
Waray: 3.4%
Other: 25.3%

Ethnic Groups Tagalog: 28.1% Cebuano: 13.1% Ilocano: 9% Bisaya/Binisaya: 7.6% Hiligaynon Ilongo: 7.5% Bikol: 6% Waray: 3.4% Other: 25.3%

Religions

Roman Catholic: 80.9%
Muslim: 5%
Evangelical: 2.8%
Iglesia ni Cristo: 2.3%
Aglipayan: 2%
Other Christian: 4.5%
Unspecified: 0.6%
None: 0.1%

Religions Roman Catholic: 80.9% Muslim: 5% Evangelical: 2.8% Iglesia ni Cristo: 2.3% Aglipayan: 2% Other Christian: 4.5% Unspecified: 0.6% None: 0.1%

Language Filipino (national language; official; based on Tagalog) English (official) Local dialects Cebuano Ilocano Hiligaynon Bicol Waray Papamgo Pangasinense

Language

Filipino (national language; official; based on Tagalog)
English (official)
Local dialects

Cebuano
Ilocano
Hiligaynon
Bicol
Waray
Papamgo
Pangasinense

Literacy (citizens age 15 over who can read and write)

Total population: 92.6%
Male: 92.5%
Female: 92.7%

Economy

Currency: Philippine Peso
Trade Organizations: APEC, ASEAN, WTO

GDP: $320.6bn (est. 2008)
GDP per capita: $3,400 (est. 2008)
GDP growth: 4.5% (est. 2008)
GDP by sector:

Services: 54.3%
Industry: 31.9%
Agriculture: 13.8%

Labour Force: 36.82 million (est. 2008)
Unemployment: 7.7% (Jan. 2009)

Philippines: Case Studies

zhileiten — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:21:24 CST

Typhoon Ondoy

Web 2.0 on Your Phone
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chikka 2.0

Chikka Asia, Inc. is a wireless application service provider, better known for creating the world’s first instant messenger to fully integrate mobile features via SMS, the “Chikka Messenger.” The Chikka Messenger has 38 million registered users, including mobile subscribers from network operators worldwide. It is interoperable with Google Talk.

Pronounced as it is spelled, Chikka \’CHI-ka\ is a Filipino colloquial term for ‘small talk.’ As a verb, it translates to mingling easily, or doing anything with ease; or in a clever manner. According to the company, ‘small talk’ in fact refers to the nature of many text and chat messages exchanged throughout online and mobile communities worldwide.

Headquartered in Manila, Philippines, Chikka Asia powers services for mobile instant messaging and email accessible via SMS, mobile payment systems utilizing call credits, Free-Reply SMS for prepaid mobile subscribers in need of “top-up,” mobile-enabled auctions and matchmaking, as well as text, voice and visual mobile content.

The company’s services are currently available to over 45 mobile carriers in fourteen countries including the US, UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

More information on Chikka:

Chikka open doors to Web. 2.0 and Social Network Developers

Chikka: more OFW programs for 2008

Chikka threatens blogger over noypiTunes post

Chikka 2.0: Web 2.0 Meets Mobile

Iran

danielleong — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:14:08 CST

----------------------------------------------Iran header picture credits: Lucinka
----------------------------------------------Navigation bar picture credits: Mehrdad Tajdini

Iran's Internet and Broadband Penetration

keshiadevries — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:05:28 CST

Growth and % Population Statistics

YEAR	Users	Population	% Pop.	Usage Source
2000	250,000	69,442,905	3.8 %	ITU
2002	5,500,000	69,442,905	7.5 %	ITU
2005	7,500,000	69,442,905	10.8 %	ITU
2008	23,000,000	65,875,223	34.9 %	ITU
2009	32,200,000	66,429,284	48.5 %	IWS

1. Internet User Statistics

Iran is ranked 17th among the top 20 countries with the highest number of internet users in the world (as of March 2009).

Currently (as of Nov 2009), there are around 32 million internet users. The web is the main forum for dissident voices. Access is easy to arrange and affordable for middle-class households.However, service providers are prevented from allowing access to sites deemed to be pornographic or anti-Islamic.

User Demographics
Internet usage in Iran continues to increase at a sharp rate. Over the past eight years, the number of Internet users in Iran has grown at an average annual rate of approximately 48 percent, increasing from under 1 million Internet users in 2005 to around 32 million in 2009. 6 This rate of growth is higher than any other country in the Middle East. Internet users now account for approximately 49% of the population of Iran. This Internet penetration rate is considerably higher than the Middle East average of 26 percent and the World average of 23.8%.

2. Broadband User Statistics

#

TOP COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF WORLD INTERNET BROADBAND SUBSCRIBERS IN 2007
Country or Region	Broadband Subscribers	Broadband Penetration (%)	Population ( 2007 Est. )	Source and Date of Usage Data
1	United States	66,213,257	21.9 %	301,967,681	OECD - June/07
2	China	48,500,000	3.7 %	1,317,431,495	MII - Sept./06
3	Japan	27,152,349	21.1 %	128,646,345	OEDC - June/07
4	Germany	17,472,000	21.2 %	82,509,367	OECD - June/07
5	Korea, South	14,042,728	27.4 %	51,300,989	OECD - Dec./06
6	United Kingdom	13,957,111	23.1 %	60,363,602	ECTA - Mar./07
7	France	13,677,000	22.3 %	61,350,009	Teleco - Mar/07
8	Italy	9,427,300	15.8 %	59,546,696	ECTA - Mar/07
9	Canada	7,675,533	23.7 %	32,440,970	OECD - Dec/06
10	Spain	7,505,456	16.7 %	45,003,663	CMT - July/07
11	Brazil	6,417,000	3.4 %	186,771,161	Teleco - June/07
12	Netherlands	5,388,000	32.8 %	16,447,682	ECTA - Mar./07
13	Taiwan	4,505,800	19.6 %	23,001,442	ITU - Sept/07
14	Australia	3,939,288	18.8 %	20,984,595	OECD - Sept/06
15	Mexico	3,728,150	3.5 %	106,457,446	OECD - Sept/06
16	Turkey	3,632,700	4.8 %	75,863,600	ECTA - Mar/07
17	Russia	2,900,000	2.0 %	143,406,042	ITU - Sept./07
18	Poland	2,640,000	6.9 %	38,109,499	OECD - Dec./06
19	India	2,520,000	0.2 %	1,129,667,528	TRAI - June/07
20	Sweden	2,478,003	27.2 %	9,107,795	ECTA - March/07

TOP 20 Countries		268,150,077	6.9 %	3,890,377,607	IWS - Nov.14/07
Rest of the World		36,321,302	1.4 %	2,684,288,810	IWS - Nov.14/07
Total World Subscribers		304,471,379	4.6 %	6,574,666,417	IWS - Nov.14/07

Iran has 465,100 broadband connections (as of Sept 2007). Over the past few years, 11 companies had been licensed to provide such high-speed services.These regulations on Internet access speed were met with intense opposition and reports suggested that the restrictions would be lifted once more effective content control mechanisms were put into place. However, the ban on high-speed service for households and public access points remains in place, although universities and private businesses are able to obtain high-speed broadband service.

Iran is the only country in the world to have instituted an explicit cap on Internet access speed for households.

3. Gender trends (correlation with Internet usage)

4. Preferred places online
The Iranian blogosphere has been heralded as one of the largest and most active in the world. The number of active Iranian blogs is estimated to be approximately 60,000—a formidable number of independent voices for a country accustomed to tightly controlling the press.

Iran: Country Background

rita_marques — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:41:42 CST

GEOGRAPHY

Location: Iran is located in the Middle East, between Turkey and Iraq on the west and Afghanistan and Pakistan on the east; it borders the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman in the south and Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea, and Turkmenistan in the north.

Size: Iran’s total area is nearly 1.65 million square kilometers, of which 1.64 million square kilometers—an area slightly larger than Alaska—is land mass.

Land Boundaries: Iran is bounded by Afghanistan (936 kilometers), Armenia (35 kilometers), Azerbaijan proper (432 kilometers), Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan enclave (179 kilometers), Iraq (1,458 kilometers), Pakistan (909 kilometers), Turkey (499 kilometers), and Turkmenistan (992 kilometers).

Climate: Iran’s climate is mostly arid and semi-arid, with a humid rain-forest zone along the Caspian coast. Temperatures average 10°–25° C in the winter and 19°–38° C in the summer.

Natural Resources: Iran has enormous reserves of oil and natural gas. Oil reserves are estimated at more than 130 billion barrels (third in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq; about 11 percent of world proven reserves), and natural gas reserves are estimated at more than 32 trillion cubic meters (second in the world behind Russia). Mineral resources currently exploited include bauxite, chromium, coal, copper, gold, iron ore, limestone, red oxide, salt, strontium, sulfur, turquoise, and uranium.

SOCIETY

Ethnic Groups: The main ethnic groups in Iran are Persians (65 percent), Azerbaijani Turks (16 percent), Kurds (7 percent), Lurs (6 percent), Arabs (2 percent), Baluchis (2 percent), Turkmens (1 percent), Turkish tribal groups such as the Qashqai (1 percent), and non-Persian, non-Turkic groups such as Armenians, Assyrians, and Georgians (less than 1 percent).

Languages: Persian, the official language, is spoken as a mother tongue by at least 65 percent of the population and as a second language by a large proportion of the remaining 35 percent. Other languages in use are Azeri Turkish and Turkic dialects, Kurdish, Luri, Arabic, and Baluchi.

Telecommunications: Most phases of telecommunications services are controlled by the state. Between 1995 and 2006, the number of telephone landlines increased from 86 to 330 per 1,000 population. A large-scale modernization program, backed by heavy state investment, has aimed at improving and expanding urban service and reaching rural areas that lack telephone service. In 2006 Iran had nearly 22 million main telephone lines in use, and an estimated 13.7 million subscribers had mobile telephone service. Internet use expanded rapidly in the early 2000s from an estimated 250,000 users in 1999 to an estimated 7.5 million users in 2005. The Telecommunications Company of Iran estimated that Iran would have 25 million Internet users by 2009. However, the state filters Internet content intensively.

POLITICS
Today, the Iran Goverment system combines elements elements of a modern Islamic theocracy with democracy. A network of unelected institutions controlled by the highly powerful conservative Supreme Leader is countered by a president and parliament elected by the people. For much of the last decade, Iranian politics has been characterised by continued wrangling between these elected and unelected institutions. But now all the organs of government are dominated by conservatives.

Periodic tension between the office of the Leader and the office of the president has often been the source of political instability. There are also deeper tensions between religious rule and the democratic aspirations of many Iranians.

Structure of Power in Iran

Source: BBC news

SUPREME LEADER: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

At the top of Iran's power structure is the Supreme Leader .

PRESIDENT: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The Constitution defines the President as the highest state authority after the Supreme Leader. The President is responsible for the implementation of the Constitution and for the exercise of executive powers, except for matters directly related to the Supreme Leader.

Formal Name	Islamic Republic of Iran (Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran)
Short Name	Iran
Capital	Tehran
Major Cities	Mashhad, Esfahan, Tabriz, Karaj, Shiraz, Qom, and Ahvaz.

The flag, adopted after the 1978–79 Revolution, features three horizontal bars, green (on top), white, and red, representing, respectively, Islam, peace, and courage. The bars are divided by stylized script. The white bar features a centered, red, abstract representation of the name Allah in the shape of a tulip.

Iran's Technology Penetration

keshiadevries — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:53:02 CST

TV, Telephone and Computer Penetration
Internet Penetration
Mobile Penetration

However, Iran’s policy framework is also different from those of other nations, as
the ITU reports that Iran has yet to fully liberalise any telecommunications sector,
while some sectors (leased lines and International gateways) remain under
monopoly control. The country’s telecommunications regulator, the
Communications Regulatory Authority, is also described by the ITU as not being
autonomous in its decision-making capacity. Thus Iran has some regulatory
features that are distinctive from that of many other nations.
There has, however, been some foreign interest in the Iranian mobile industry,
with MTN of South Africa taking a stake in Irancell, the country’s second-largest
mobile operator, and the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation winning a
license to be the third mobile operator in the country.

About Iran

danielleong — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:57:55 CST

--------------------------------------------------------Navigation Bar Picture Credits: mammad

Qatar: From the Creators

HSauramo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:10:33 CST

Our fantastic project group from left to right:
Jeremy Aruldoss, Mikael Sauramo, Sarah Chong Xinen and Tham Zhu Ming.

We welcome any enquiries and/or requests for the improvement of this wiki page.

CONTACT US @

Mikael Sauramo
Finnish Exchange Student
Singapore Management University / HSE
hsauramo.2009@exchange.smu.edu.sg

Jeremy Aruldoss
Year 4 Business Management Undergraduate
Singapore Management University
jeremya.2006@business.smu.edu.sg

Sarah Chong Xinen
Year 3 Economics and Business Management Undergraduate
Economics and Marketing Major
Singapore Management University
sarah.c.2007@smu.edu.sg

Tham Zhu Ming
Year 4 Business Management Undergraduate
Marketing & Sociology Major
Singapore Management University
zhuming.2006@business.smu.edu.sg

About Us

shaun.tay.2006 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:26:02 CST

The Thailand section was created and maintained by Social Media Thailand team from Singapore Management University.

This page is to acknowledge SMU students in their efforts to bring neutral, accurate and updated information about Thailand.

School year 2008/2009 Term 1:

School year 2008/2009 Term 2: Jeffrey YEO Soon Huat, Marissa OW Yun Yi, Ronald CHAO Zi Qin, Sammy NGUYEN Hoang Viet.

Our Recommendation

chitanya — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:43:16 CST

We’ve presented an assortment of information about the digital media scene in Taiwan, but you probably still have one pressing question: Where exactly should I invest my money?

We can’t predict the future with 100% certainty but we can make some recommendations based on our analysis of data and trends in Taiwan.
Here’s where we think the money lies in Taiwan:

1. E-commerce
With the Taiwanese e-commerce market expected to reach over $450 million by 2010, the industry looks promising.
It helps that e-commerce has a large governmental backing. The National Information and Communications Initiative Committee formulated a plan called the “e-Taiwan project” in June 2002. It aims to help Taiwan embrace the global trend towards electronic business and commerce and to accelerate the transition to a knowledge-based economy. Under this plan, 600 government services will be brought online, and operational costs will be reduced.
Government subsidies of up to $15 million up until 2008 have helped 20,000 enterprises in 200 local industries set up Internet databases and e-commerce trading systems. Among the industries that have benefited are footwear, electric wires and cable, foods and pharmaceuticals, publications etc. The government plans on assisting at least 100 more enterprises in 200 industries with establishing e-commerce trading networks in the coming years. An enticing proposition for these industries!

2. Mobile
Taiwan’s mobile landscape is impressive, with its mobile penetration rate surpassing 110%. Of Taiwan’s mobile population, 10.9 million own 3G devices. Clearly the Taiwanese are familiar with mobile technology. However, their use is still fairly basic, mostly limited to making phone calls. Only 3% regularly send SMS and 2% use it for Internet access. However, these areas of mobile phone use are expected to take off in the next few years, in accordance with the global mobile trend. The numbers show: Taiwan’s mobile sector earned US $7.2 billion in 2008, with mobile data services increasing by over 20%. We can expect this number to continue increasing across Asia, but especially within Taiwan where mobile phones are almost more prevalent than landlines.

3. Online Gaming

The Taiwanese are the second most enthusiastic online gamers in the region, visiting gaming sites 15.5 times a month and staying for an average of 151 minutes.
Since 2004, the introduction of free-to-play games has helped revitalize Taiwan's online games industry. These games offer compelling and culturally relevant game content. Even those that require payment are at a relatively low cost ($12-$15 per month). A high Internet penetration rate of 67% drove growth in the Taiwanese online games market. While multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) continue to represent the largest segment of the online market, casual games are growing at a faster pace and are a part of the market worth entering.

Take our advice with a pinch of salt. But the numbers indicate that money and consumer interest is headed in this direction.
If you want more detailed information, browse through the rest of the wiki and our Useful Links. This will give you a better understanding of Taiwan’s blossoming digital media scene.

Best of luck!
- Adam, Chitanya, Elisa, and Lynne

Taiwan: Case Studies

chitanya — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:27:37 CST

EMI Music's Mobile Campaign

Mobile devices have proven to be as handy as marketing tools as they are for other uses. Taiwan’s mobile market is no exception.

EMI Music, the music industry’s third largest company, unleashed a successful mobile advertising campaign in September 2007 for Taiwanese pop star Jolin Tsai’s Agent-J CD release. In an effort to curb illegal downloading and stimulate interest, the mobile campaign encouraged fans to buy the album pre-release rather than wait to download it illegally.

Mobile activity was used as part of an integrated campaign involving a film based around Agent-J. Advertising was pushed across multiple mediums. The DVD was available only with advance orders. A pre-launch SMS drive offered VIP tickets to the film premiere. A website offered a downloadable ringtone in the style of a voicemail detailing Tsai’s mission in the film. Posters and concerts added to the visibility of the campaign.
The mobile campaign was a resounding success. Agent J was Taiwan’s top-selling album of 2007, and 80,000 copies of the film and album were pre-ordered. More than 27,000 people requested the downloadable voice message and 15,000 applied for tickets to the VIP premiere.
Information Source

Intel's "Heart of the Matter" Campaign

Intel wanted to make their Centrino 2 Processor relevant again. Ad agency MRM's Asian Pacific branch unleashed a campaign to achieve this using transmedia. MRM took the non-traditional approach of of creating an online-only feature film called "Heart of the Matter". It starred two of Taiwan's biggest stars and was distributed exclusively online. Viewers were then invited to enter a competition where they could win a laptop.
The campaign was a surprising success. In just over two weeks, there were over 50 million ad impressions with a substantial click-through rate.

Other markers of success:

The film pulled in over 200% higher traffic to the Intel "What's Inside You" page located on Intel.com.- During the first two weeks, the videos were viewed by more than 100,000 people.
The first week alone saw an impressive 239% growth in Intel Corporate site visits and a 236% increase in page views.
Over half of all visitors entered the contest, with an overwhelming 94% getting the correct answer and 90% submitting their emails to enter.

Information Source

Politics and social media in Taiwan

Local elections in Taiwan saw the launching of campaigns which were not just being run on the streets but also in cyberspace. The screen shot from the DPP website shows the party’s candidates for mayor or county commissioner in the end of year local government elections. Beneath each candidate’s photo there are icons linking to Plurk, Facebook, blogs, websites and YouTube. It shows that candidates are actively using social media as tools in their campaign.

A number of leading DPP politicians including Frank Hsieh, Su Tseng-changand Hsiao Bi-khim are active users of Plurk. Frank Hsieh has just published a book called “Frank’s Plurk Diary”. He began using Plurk in April this year and now has 11,447 friends and 3,519 fans. Plurk is currently much more popular than Twitter in Taiwan because it has a Chinese-language option.
Information source

Social Media during Typhoon Morakot

Rescue efforts by citizens during the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot was the first time people gathered together
through social media after a natural disaster in Taiwan, illustrating how online messages can motivate people
to stand up and devote themselves to rescuing others.

Microblog service Plurk played a new role during this Typhoon’s attack. People published instant messages to gather goods and volunteers via Plurk. There were tons of related messages but they were spread individually without integration. Therefore, a specific account was established to collect and republish information. Moreover, several developers created Web sites voluntarily for the public to report the latest news. For example, Google
maps shows the latest situation visually. The Typhoon page looks simple, but it presents each area’s immediate
need for food and volunteers. DisasterTv also serves a similar purpose. The largest BBS forum in Taiwan, PTT, also created a discussion board for fundraising and recruiting volunteers.
Information Source

Read more about Taiwan's Digital Social Media:
About Taiwan Media Landscape Case Studies Interviews Useful Links From the Creators

Read more about Taiwan's Digital Social Media:

About Taiwan
Media Landscape
Case Studies
Interviews
Useful Links
From the Creators

Taiwan: Mobile Landscape

ElisaSilvestrini — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:26:49 CST

Overview

I

Taiwan's Mobile Internet Users
Age		% of age group using Mobile Internet
	12-14	23.50%
	15-20	43.70%
	21-30	58.00%
	31-40	48.00%
	41-50	32.20%
	51-60	26.70%
	61-64	23.80%
	65+	17.70%

n the last decade Taiwan’s telecoms infrastructure has been upgraded significantly, undergoing a series of network adjustments. Today Taiwan’s mobile landscape continues to be like no other in the world. By early 2002, the country had reached one mobile service for every person on the island. At that time this was the highest penetration of any mobile market in the world. By 2009, mobile penetration was sitting at around 110%, with fixedline at a steady 55%. Total mobile sector revenues reached US$7.2 billion in 2008 as the highly penetrated market saw operators introducing value-added, higher-margin products.

Consistent with the performance of its impressive mobile sector, Taiwan has been energetically moving into the ‘next generation’ of mobile services. Mobile operators signed up more than 8 million 3G handset users by the end of 2008. Chunghwa Teleco, attributed to around 3 million of these users, with Far EasTone and Taiwan mobile following with 2.2 million and 1.8 million subscribers respectively.

Mobile Phone Statistics and Forecasts

Taiwan Telecom Sector - Mobile Data
	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
No. of Mobile Phone Subscribers ('000)	21521.0	21198.0	21495.0	21840.0	22170.0	22440.0	22730.0	23120.0
No. of Mobile Phone Subscribers /100	94.0	91.4	91.5	92.9	94.3	95.5	96.7	98.4
No. of 3G Phone Subscribers('000)	450.0	1200.0	3450.0	5320.0	8129.0	1260.0	15220.0	17450.0
No. of 3G Phone Subscribers /100	1.9	5.1	15.0	23.1	35.3	54.8	64.8	74.3
3G Market as % of entire mobile market	2.1	5.7	16.1	24.4	36.6	56.1	67.0	75.5

(source: Taiwan Telecommunications Report Q2)

Taiwan’s mobile market has been a remarkable phenomenon. By early 2002, the country had reached the milestone of one mobile service for every person on theisland. This meant that it had the highest penetration of any mobile market in the world at the time. After peaking at a penetration of 114% in late 2003. The number of mobile telephones in Taiwan has exceeded the entire population of the island, putting Taiwan atop the world in terms of per capita mobile phone ownership, according to the latest government statistics.

Competitive Landscape
Three telecommunication companies dominate and shape the mobile market with Taiwan:

Teleco Company	Year Founded	Listed Exchange: Symbol	Market Cap (USD)	Major Shareholder
Chunghwa	1996	NYSE:CHT (ADR) TSE: 2412 (Dual listing)	$24.5 Bln	Ministry of Trasportation and Communication (35.41%)
Far EastTone	1998	TSE: 4904	$5.3Bln	NA
Taiwan Mobile	1997	TSE: 3045	$5.4 Bln	Taiwan Fixed Network(19%)

(source: Euromoney Institutional Investor Company. Economist Intelligence Unit Limited)

The mobile market remains saturated

Given that penetration levels, the days of rapid and relatively easy growth in the mobile-phone market are over. This does not mean the end of the handset market: existing subscribers will continue to buy new phones to replace more outdated models, with the speed of this substitution cycle being buoyed by robust growth in the wider economy. Taiwan's mobile-phone market is dominated by Chunghwa Telecom (the partly state-owned former monopoly) and two other local operators, FarEasTone and Taiwan Mobile Company (known as Taiwan Cellular until 2005). There are three other operators. For the mobile-phone operators, the challenge over the forecast period will be to convince consumers of the need for more sophisticated services, as the maturity and saturation of the market hold out little hope for an expansion of their client base.

Companies have never managed to encourage the widespread use of wireless application protocol (WAP) services; the number of subscribers reached around 700,000 at the end of 2002, but has fallen back from this level since then. The promotion of general packet radio service (GPRS)--enhanced second-generation (2.5G) technology that allows the transmission of data and photographs as well as connection to the Internet--has been more successful, with the number of subscribers rising from 31,000 at the end of 2001 to around 5m at the end of 2006. Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) applications have also proved popular, but these are expanding from a small base. The low level of non-voice revenue on current second-generation (2G) and 2.5G networks suggests that voice services will underpin the industry's future development over the forecast period.
There is still a low adoption rate for 3G mobile in Taiwan. As the National Communications Committee continues to reduce fees on ADSL and 2G monthly fees, operators need to accelerate the 3G migration in order to maintain the ARPU numbers. Approximately 50% have 3G handsets and hence use 3G services. Adoption rate among all mobile phone users is still approximated at 15%. The number of customers actually using 3G services, although rising, is said to be about one-tenth of subscriber levels. Given that service providers have invested so much money in developing 3G, it seems likely that they will push the technology and handsets aggressively.

Technological Infrastructure: Wimax
Wimax licenses were awarded to 5 companies in late July 2007. These companies were:


- Taiwan's Mobile Penetration Rate has surpassed 110% - Mobile phones are still mostly used for making phone calls (65%). - SMS/MMS usage is only 3% and internet access 2%

- Taiwan's Mobile Penetration Rate has surpassed 110%

- Mobile phones are still mostly used for making phone calls (65%).

- SMS/MMS usage is only 3% and internet access 2%

Far EasTone
Global On Corp
Joint Venture between Tecom and Vibo Telecom
First International Telecom Corp
Tatung

Wimax allows:

Connecting Wi-Fi hotspots with each other and to other parts of the Internet.
Providing high-speed data and telecommunications services.
Providing a diverse source of Internet connectivity as part of a business continuity plan.
Serves as a means for increasing bandwidth for data intensive applications on mobile phones
Allows operators to use Wimax to cover any gaps in network coverage.

Government Regulations
The telecoms industry was long a protected sector of the economy, under the monopoly of the government’s Directorate-General of Telecommunications (DGT). In recent years, however, officials have implemented a sweeping liberalization of this area, with the aim of transforming the island into a regional telecoms hub serving the financial, shipping and tourism industries.As part of the government's liberalisation drive, limits on foreign participation in the telecoms sector have been eased. The government agreed to raise the direct and indirect stakes that foreign investors are allowed to hold in telecoms companies from a combined 49% to 60%

SWOT Analysis

Taiwan SWOT Analysis
Strengths Liberalised, highly developed telecoms sector with multiple mobile operators High broadband take-up (22.5% penetration in 2006), with WiMAX licences to help contribute to higher growth and revenues for operators Open economy with low levels of corruption. Growing data services as percentage of revenues, thanks to acceptance of 3G	Weaknesses Many telecoms sub-sectors at or near saturation, limiting scope for growth Mobile data average revenue per user (ARPU) low compared with regional peers Limited competition in local access market Low existing levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) Continued poor level of 3G take-up, with FarEasTone and TWM yet to break through FY06 targets
Opportunities Domestic economy expected to continue to perform strongly Strong post-paid subscriber base across major operators, should provide easier migration towards 3G service take up Reduction to mobile and internet/ADSL tariffs by NCC could help take-up Inactive users now eliminated, operators will begin to focus on future growth in the mobile sector Healthy level of competition among vendors should aid greater choice of handsets, and in particular those offering WVAS capabilities	Threats Expensive handsets could hinder take up of 3G services, although greater availability will reduce prices Broadband ARPU could fall markedly with increased competition in mature market Slowdown in Chinese economy could impact upon Taiwan

Additional Information:

Soundbytes
Sean Gowran, president of Ericsson Taiwan, says mobile communication holds obvious attractions for the Taiwanese. "People spend the majority of their time outside the home and mobile devices allow them to keep in touch and stay informed," he says
Until now, data usage has been limited - even SMS uptake has been sluggish - but Gowran says that, with the advent of 3G, that is about to change. "In a market where there is heavy competition for voice, operators are turning to data services to differentiate their offerings," he says. "The difficulty of inputting Chinese language characters and the low cost of voice services have impeded SMS development, but this will not be a barrier to more advanced data services. Internet access, music and video downloads are already popular services."
Gowran says mobile broadband growth is inevitable. "At the moment, about 90 percent of 3G data usage comes from just 10 percent of users. As the market matures, the aim for operators is to grow data traffic by increasing the percentage of active data subscribers."
Pyramid Research predicts that the trend towards greater data usage will continue, as operators make up for shrinking mobile voice revenues, and account for 16 percent of total mobile revenues by 2011. In an already overcrowded market, operators have to develop richer content to maintain customer loyalty and prevent churn.

Sources:

Yuanta Research Center Initiating Coverage, 27th March 2008 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/36917.php?s=h
Taiwan Telecommunications Report. London: Business Monitor International Ltd.
Taiwan 3G on the Move, http://www.ericsson.com/solutions/operators/news/2006/q4/20061019_taiwan.shtml

Taiwan: Internet Landscape

ElisaSilvestrini — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:15:53 CST

Taiwan's Internet Users 2008
		(000)	% of users
Sex
	Male	5,341	53.30%
	Female	4,672	45.70%
Age
	12-19	2,339	23.40%
	20-29	3,194	31.90%
	30-39	2,428	24.30%

Ten Years of Internet in Taiwan
With 14.47 million broadband subscribers in Taiwan the internet population is both one of the larges and youngest in the world. 96.95% of them are 16 to 20 years old; 90% are between the age of 12 and 35; those above 56 only account for 17.89% of users. In Febuary 2009 Taiwan also had 11.2 million unique online visitors. On average they each spent 974.4 minutes online that month for an average number of 32.1 visits per person.
(

(source: COMSCORE)

User Behavior

Taiwan's Top 10 Sites
Site		(000)	% Reach	Total Min.
	YAHOO!	9,248	82.60%	2,985
	MICROSOFT	6,539	58.40%	19,700
	GOOGLE	6,288	56.20%	446
	PCHOME	3,729	33.30%	82
	CHUNGHWA	3,365	30.10%	81
	YAM.COM	3,047	27.20%	74
	XUITE.NET	2,520	22.50%	25
	PIXNET.NET	2,387	21.30%	19
	MYFOXY.NET	2,235	20.00%	15
	SINA	2,156	19.30%	44

Taiwans online market is dominated by social media use. Blogging has become one of these dominant online activities with 86.6% of people have read a blog, and 70.9% have created a blog themselves. Taiwan is also a “a nation of active social networks”. It is estimated that there are 12.32 million social media users in the country, and of these users, 63.1% are maintaining their own networking site.

Island Wide Broadband Connectivity
Thanks to Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest telecommunication company, a partially government owned corporation, Taiwan can claim tobe the first country in the world to have installed broadband infrastructure island-wide. They bridged the digital divide between urban and rural areasafter undertaking their Optical Era Project, an investment of approximately US$1.8 billion to construct an island-wide fibre optic network that would connect five rural communitieswith the rest of the network over five years. By 2010 it aims to provide fibre access to 2.4 million residential and business subscribers from 700,000 going into2009.

Taiwan Internet, broadband and telecoms statistics – 2004 - 2008

Sector	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Internet (million)
Internet users	12.2	13.2	14.5	15.4	15.8
Internet subscribers	8.0	7.3	7.0	6.0	6.0
Mobile Internet subscribers	5.3	8.1	9.1	11.8	13.0
- as % of all mobile subscribers	23.5%	36.4%	39.4%	48.8%	51.4%
Broadband (million)
Total subscribers	3.7	4.2	4.5	4.6	4.7
Penetration rate	16.3%	18.5%	19.7%	20.2%	20.3%
Proportion of Internet subscribers	46.0%	58.0%	61.0%	62.0%	68.0%
DSL subscribers	3.1	3.6	3.8	3.8	3.3
Subscribers to Telecoms Services (million)
Fixed-line telephone subscribers	13.5	13.6	13.4	13.3	13.1
Mobile phone subscribers	22.7	22.1	23.2	24.2	25.3
- 3G subscribers	0.5	0.9	1.8	3.5	5.0
- 3G market share	2.1%	4.2%	7.9%	14.4%	19.8%

(Source: OGILVY and OGILYONE)

Expansion Overseas
Changhwa Telecom has also gone ahead with a US$30 million “Internet data joint venture” with Vietnam’s military-run celco Viettel as part of its overseas expansion efforts. The companies goal is to have 20% of total revenues come from overseas efforts by the year 2013. In total the organization will be investing US$3.9 billion in the next five years. As the leader in the Taiwan market it is also preparing plans to enter the China market once the legal barriers with the mainland have been dropped.


Computers: 57.5 per 100 inhabitants
Internet users: 65.7 per 100 inhabitants
Telephone lines: 62.0 per 100 inhabitants

Computers: 57.5 per 100 inhabitants

Internet users: 65.7 per 100 inhabitants

Telephone lines: 62.0 per 100 inhabitants

Taiwan and Web 2.0
Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd, Taiwan's state-controlled telecom company plans to invest NT$100 billion (US$3.1 billion) over the next five years to upgrade its network and further develop applications and services based on Web 2.0. Half of the money will be spent on infrastructure, and the other half will be directed towards developing services and applications on the network designed around the idea of Web 2.0. The main aim is to transform Taiwan into a world Internet leader and turn the entire island into a wireless Internet zone with plans to continue building on existing Web 2.0 projects.

Taiwan's "Silicon Valley"
Hsinchu Science Park, an industrial park located south of Taipei, Taiwan, is where engineers and executives figure out how tomanufacture a huge portion of the world's chips, notebooks, printers, scanners, LCD TVs, and other equipment. Residents include chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and United Microelectronics, consumer electronics specialist Hon Hai, notebooks maker Quanta, and display maker AU Optotronics. Nearly 120,000 people work there. Revenue from the industrial park in the first eight months of 2007 commanded NT$737.3 billion, according to the Taipei Times.

Sources:

1.2008 Asia Telecoms Mobile and Broadband in Taiwan

2.The world's tech hot spots

3.Business booming at nation's science parks

Taiwan: Traditional Media

lynneguey — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:12:52 CST

History
Taiwan’s democratization in 1987 had a huge effect on the liberalization of traditional news media. While the Taiwanese press did not become completely free overnight, extraordinary changes occurred at an incredible pace in 1987 when then-President lifted martial law and began the process of democratization. At the time, there were mainly four restricted areas in Taiwan’s press: blunt criticism of the government and government officials, the independence government, Mainland relations, and the military (Kuo, 1993). Today, almost nothing is off limits in Taiwan’s traditional media, particularly newspapers. In fact, the Taiwanese mass media has played a significant role in knocking down old censorship rules and achieving practically complete freedom of the press, thus moving the country towards full-fledged democracy. Criticism of the government, once unheard of in newspapers, is a common editorial topic. Coverage of the communist Mainland is extensive, and there is even legal permission to advocate for Taiwan’s independence in newspaper columns.

The Current Landscape
Today, the media landscape in Taiwan is considered to be one of the freest and most competitive in Asia. It didn’t always used to be this way, however. From 1955 to 1988, Taiwan experienced a “newspaper ban” that restricted the number of pages and publications that could be published. During this era, there were only 2 major newspapers, 3 evening newspapers, and 3 national television stations. Since the lift of the ban in 1988, the market has changed significantly.
There are now 5 major newspapers competing for the morning market, one evening newspaper, dozens of cable channels plus 2 new networks competing for viewing time. There are more players in a flat market; as such, media in Taiwan is facing tougher competition than ever. Competition has been intensified by the rise of the Internet and digital media. Content digitization has changed the way traditional print and broadcast media operate.

Overall, the atmosphere of democratization has created a much more aggressive media and society. The government is unlikely to censor, often uncertain where to draw the limits. Though the market is undoubtedly free, there is still concern over the media’s increasingly sensationalized portrayal of “news”. Since the election of President Chen Shui-Ban in 2000, the heightened competition in Taiwan’s political environment has led to criticism of a more “tabloid-like” news environment. In a 2006 survey, the Asia-Pacific Stakeholder Study found that the trust rating of the mainstream media in Taiwan is lower than foreign mainstream media, Web-based media and even bloggers. According to the study, only 3 percent of the respondents in Taiwan believe what the media prints about corporations. Among the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan's media credibility was ranked last.

Despite these weaknesses and rising competition, media outlets in Taiwan still garner a large influence.

Statistics
In a market of 23 million, Taiwan’s media landscape is bustling. It houses seven 24-hour news stations, more than 4,000 magazine publishers, approximately 200 radio stations, and about 2,500 newspaper publishers. Additionally, it houses 21 AM radio stations, 143 FM stations, and 76 television broadcast stations (5 television networks with 46 digital and 30 analog stations). Taiwan also has the highest density of Satellite News Gathering (SNG) trucks in the world.
Cable TV usage stands around 80% in Taiwan. The majority of the population still receives their news from cable TV because of cheap subscription rates, though the Internet is beginning to take over. Programming is mostly in Mandarin and Taiwanese, with some foreign language channels in Korean and English.

Main Traditional Media Outlets:

Newspapers:
The main Chinese Language newspapers are:
China Times (Zhongguo Shibao)
Independent Evening News (Zili Wanbao)
Taiwan Daily (Taiwan Ribao)
Taiwan Times (Taiwan Shibao)

There are also three English language newspapers:
The China Post (Yingwen Zhongguo Youbao, )
Taipei Times (Taibei Shibao, )
Taiwan News

Radio:
Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) - national and regional networks
CBS - Radio Taiwan International - national broadcaster; also beams services to mainland China and the rest of the world with programmes in various languages and Chinese dialects
Public Radio System (PRS) - government-run; travel, weather, social information
UFO network- second largest station in Taiwan. Very popular. Plays all different kinds of music such as C-pop, J-pop, and American pop.

Miscellaneous:

Forumosa - An online forum for all things Taiwan

China News Agency - Publicly owned news agency based in Taipei

The fall of the newspaper.
Previously Taiwan's largest daily newspaper with a
circulation of 300,000, the Taiwan Daily was transferred
to aLos Angeles-based newspaper in late 2006.

Taiwan: Demographics

chitanya — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:11:58 CST

Population

22,974,347

Age Structure

0-14 years: 16.7% (male 1,996,905/female 1,844,611) 15-64 years: 72.6% (male 8,416,300/female 8,267,675) 65 years and over: 10.7% (male 1,183,382/female 1,265,474)

Median Age

total: 36.5 years male: 35.9 years female: 37.1 years

Population Growth Rate

0.227%

Birth Rate

8.99 births/1,000 population

Death Rate

6.76 deaths/1,000 population

Net Migration Rate

0.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.09 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female total population: 1.02 male(s)/female

Infant mortality rate

total: 5.35 deaths/1,000 live births male: 5.64 deaths/1,000 live births female: 5.04 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 77.96 years male: 75.12 years female: 81.05 years

Total fertility rate

1.14 children born/woman

*All estimates based on 2009 data.

Sources:

CIA - The World Factbook -- Taiwan

Taiwan: Social Networking Sites & BBS

adamr.2007 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:40:41 CST

Overview

Participation in social networking sites (SNS) is growing, with 63.1 % of Taiwanese maintaining their own social networking profiles and engaging with various forms of social media. These include the uploading photos (69% of SNS online activity), watching of uploaded videos (89.25%) and listening to podcasts (33%). Interestingly, although Taiwanese are highly engaged in the latest forms of entertainment and trends in social media, downloading of music does not count as one of the most frequent social media activity. Likewise, an active Bulletin Board System (BBS) is a valuable component of a brand's digital campaign and an essential social element to all sites. Monitoring conversations on a BBS is an invaluable gauge to determine the degree of brand perception. BBS activity Taiwan is large, with 1.84 million unique visitors a month.

Trust in media channels?

Nielsen Media Research, a global media company specializing in online intelligence, conducted a global survey and found that despite a growing array of advertising platforms and sources, consumers around the world still place their highest levels of trust in other consumers – word-of-mouth being the most powerful selling tool.

In terms of word-of-mouth advertising, the Nielsen survey found that the Taiwanese placed consumer recommendations as the most credible form of advertising, with 91% of Taiwanese relying on “recommendations from consumers”. Taiwan came in second in this category with 91%, with only 2% points behind Hong Kong.

Nielsen also found the Taiwanese to be the fifth most trusting consumers overall of all forms of advertising (both traditional and social media), with 63% compared to the highest which was 67%. On the other hand,
in terms of consumer trust in web-based consumer opinions posted online such as blogs, the Taiwanese came in second with 76% compared to South Korea with 81%.

These statistics clearly show that there is potential for businesses to consider
communicating in social networking sites or BBS forums in Taiwan to generate revenue. SNS / BBS forums provides businesses with an online platform to interact directly with consumers as well as build relationships with them, thus facilitating positive word-of-mouth
recommendations.

Social Networking Sites & BBS in Taiwan

Social Networking Sites & BBS in Taiwan

Wretch.cc

In Oct 2009, Taiwan-based social networking site Wretch.cc announced that the number of its members had
reached over 6.5 million, making it the largest SNS in Taiwan. So far, about three billion pictures, 430 million articles, and 13 million films have been uploaded to Wretch. In addition, its user generated content function has become a solid foundation for users' sharing of information, providing fuel for the continuous growth of its members.According to Wretch Chien, founder of Wretch, the website will continue to focus on the development of its digital community. At present, the website has launched various social media tools to help netizens create their own interpersonal circles.

Acquired by Yahoo! Taiwan in 2006, Wretch.cc has continued to attract visitors because of its mass-appeal to the Taiwanese in addition to the wide range of user functions which it possesses, offering web services which entail the mixing of user-generated content and multimedia applications such as video, blogs, video blogs, photo albums and its recent expansion into video publishing.

Source: Wretch becomes largest SNS website in Taiwan

Taiwan.com.au

Taiwan.com.au is an online portal which acts as a cultural and business link between Australia and Taiwan, two countries with some remarkable similarities, yet have many complementary skills, materials and products.

The Taiwan.com.au portal in Taiwan serves Taiwanese and global Chinese-speaking audiences who are interested in knowing more about the Australian people and their culture, and in traveling to and/or studying in Australia. The site further provides useful information for those who seek opportunities of conducting business and community-oriented activities in Australia. The portal provides a series of services, including news research and analysis, cultural consultation, e-business study and advertising, online shopping, travel information, literature review, and an English-language friendship network for younger Internet users. Furthermore, Taiwanese and global Chinese-speaking audiences can subscribe to the Taiwan.com.au Portal Newsletter, a quarterly English-language publication that examines prominent political, economic, social and cultural issues in both Australia and Taiwan.

Source: About Taiwan.com.au Portal

Taiwan: E-commerce and Online Shopping

adamr.2007 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:35:58 CST

1. Online Advertising

The internet is fast becoming a key advertising channel in Taiwan due to increased internet reach from 54% to 74% between 2003 to 2007 respectively and a rise in internet daily usage from 21% to 35% during the same period. Internet marketing enjoyed strong growth of 21.8% in 2006 amidst the dampening advertising sector. Besides, the internet advertising market was estimated to grow by 30.6 % to NT$4.896 billion following Google’s foray into the Taiwanese market in 2007. In contrast, other forms of media such as newspapers, radio and magazines have seen market share decline.

A 2007 survey conducted by Yahoo! Taiwan revealed that 75.6% of Taiwanese enterprises have decided to invest some of their marketing budgets in internet-based initiatives. However, there is still room for growth as online advertising accounted for slightly over 6% of Taiwan's total advertising market value in 2007.

The table below illustrates the growing trend of businesses favoring the internet as a vital platform for advertisements:
Table 1: Taiwan’s Online Display Advertising Activity – April till June 2008

Table 2: Top 10 Advertisers – June 2008

Source: AdRelevance – 2008/07/30

Sources:
1. Taiwan Internet marketing set to expand dramatically
2. Shifting Markets, Going Global
3. Taiwan branch of Yahoo! beats revenue growth of global operations in 2007 - Refer to attachment

Online Advertising in Taiwan

Online Advertising in Taiwan

Intel Future Daily / Heart of the Matter Campaign

In September 2009, Intel Taiwan launched an Intel Family campaign to deliver a humourous approach to the importance of choosing the right central processing unit (CPU) in computers. IThe Intel Family campaign aimed at educating the public about the importance of selecting a compatible CPU in addition to demonstrating the relevance of Intel in the computer industry.

The Future Daily component of the campaign acts as an e-newspaper for user-generated content. Registered users can produce their own news content revolving around topics such as entertainment, technology, lifestyle and more. Furthermore, Intel awarded points to users for every new piece created and offer the chance to win Intel products.

Intel also demonstrated its use of non-conventional methods of advertising in the past through its Intel Centrino 2: Heart of the matter campaign. The Heart of the matter campaign included the uploading of an online-only based, exclusively distributed feature film. The film was launched as a three-part web-episode series, starring some of Taiwan's biggest stars (Videos are available above; begins from left to right). The video campaign managed to engage and entertain Intel's target audience, which in turn raise the visibility of the Intel brand. Viewers were also invited to enter a contest where they had to answer questions based on the film, in which the winner would walk away with a laptop.

The influence of the online marketing campaign was impressive. In just two weeks, the film pulled in over 200% higher traffic on the Intel homepage, with viewership of the videos reaching more than 100,000 people. The first week of the campaign alone saw a staggering 239% increase in Intel corporate site visits and a 236% increase in Intel page views. Moreover, over half of the viewers participated in the contest, with an overwhelming 84% of respondents getting the correct answer and 90% submitting their emails to enter.

Sources: - Intel future daily: Taiwan
- Intel Centrino 2: Heart of the matter campaign

2. Online Shopping

Taiwan's e-commerce market was valued at US$4 billion in 2007. More Taiwanese are shopping online due to cheaper prices and easy product searches. Online travel services command 60% market share ($US1.3 billion). Cosmetics and household products occupy 29% of the market (US$540m).

Taiwan’s government has been actively encouraging the development of both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce. The market is expected to reach NT$15.10 trillion by 2010.

The mobile share of the Internet services market (m-commerce) is the segment that looks the most promising. Sixleading mobile-phone service companies signed a mobile Internet service co-operation agreement in late 2001. Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Cellular, Far Eastone Telecommunications, TransAsia Telecommunications, KGTelecommunications and Mobitai Communications are developing Internet applications and integrated systems with support from the Institute for Information Industry and the Industrial Technology Research Institute. Aggressive promotion and advertising campaigns by telecom operators have led to rapid growth in the number of 3G (third-generation) subscribers, making 3G the main contributor to overall subscriber growth.

Consumer Behaviour in Taiwan

E-commerce in the Taiwanese Market

E-commerce in the Taiwanese Market

Leveraging on these trends, the 2 top portal sites in Taiwan - PCHome Online and Yahoo! Kimo - announced plans to expand e-commerce services in 2006. PCHome setup an online travel service while Yahoo started an online bookshop.

PCHome Online

Launched in 1998, PChome Online is the number two Internet portal and the leading ecommerce website in Taiwan. A pioneer of Taiwan ecommerce with more than 10 million members, PChome Online offers a full range of shopping services, including a traditional retail channel, a business-to-consumer shopping channel, and a consumer-to-consumer auction-style site. PChome Online's shopping sites feature an array of products including women's clothing and accessories, consumer electronics, software and books. In addition, PChome Online is the local partner of Skype, eBay's online voice communications business.

The E-commerce business injected NT$4 billion (US$125 million) into PChome's revenues in 2005, nearly
doubling from 2004. The annual revenues accounted for 23 percent of Taiwan's e-commerce market for non-travel service, making PChome the nation's largest shopping website. It is expected that PChome's planned online travel services will pose a threat to other local online travel-service sites, such as ezTravel.com and startravel.com.

Moreover, PChome Online announced in 2006 that they are in agreement to form a joint venture with eBay.com in Taiwan. Under the agreement, the companies will leverage eBay's global experience and PChome Online's local ecommerce expertise to launch a new co-branded website that will bring new online trading opportunities to buyers and sellers in Taiwan. Focused on the needs of Taiwan consumers, the new website will specialize in online auction-style trading and will also offer the ability to buy and sell at a fixed price. eBay and PChome Online will share best practices to develop a new shopping experience that offers enhanced features to the Taiwan Internet community. The new website will be managed locally by PChome Online and will replace both PChome Online's existing auction channel and the eBay Taiwan site.

Sources: -Taiwan's top two portal sits expand e-commerce services
- eBay and PChome online to form joint venture in Taiwan

Yahoo! Kimo

In 2000, Yahoo! Inc. announced that it will sign a definitive agreement to acquire Kimo, the No.1 ranked Web site in Taiwan. Kimo provides online consumers with comprehensive search capabilities, localized content, and community and personalized services, including e-mail, clubs and chat. The agreement combines the strengths of Yahoo!® Taiwan, one of Yahoo!'s 24 global properties, and Kimo, by leveraging Yahoo!'s global network and resources and Kimo's local industry expertise to deliver an unparalleled Internet experience to local consumers.

Yahoo-Kimo Taiwan invites traditional retail businesses to enter the e-commerce market and hopes to expand the market together. Yahoo! Kimo's shopping service soared 267 percent in 2005, when compared to the previous year. In 2006, the company planned to work with bookstore chain Kingstone to launch its online bookstore, www.taiwanbooks.tw which also incorporated blogging elements to generate sales (See Taiwan: The Taiwanese Blogosphere for more information)

Source: Yahoo! to acquire Kimo

TaoBao

TaoBao is an online shopping marketplace for consumers, founded by parent Alibaba group. It facilitates
transactions between individual consumers and a wide range of sellers such as retailers, wholesalers, and
other individuals. Sellers are able to post new and used goods for sale on the Taobao marketplace either through
a fixed price or negotiated sale or by auction. In September 2009, the auction site entered the Taiwanese
market to give audiences an easier platform to open accounts on Alipay to exchange Taiwanese dollars into yuan by formally launching tao1shop.tw.

Tao1shop.tw will provide various payment methods that are familiar to Taiwanese consumers, including ATM, Web ATM, 7-11 iBon, and payment in supermarkets.Taobao’s expansion is in line with Alibaba Group’s bolstered focus on the thriving platform. In August 2009, the company announced its plans to strengthen operational ties between TaoBao and its B2B site Alibaba to offer global vendors a wider range of distribution channels, as well as inking a
partnership with video website Youku.com to provide a video gallery for digital retailers.

Source: TaoBao expands into Taiwan

Taiwan: Commercial and Mobile Applications

adamr.2007 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:29:24 CST

Overview

Though Taiwan is seen as a technologically advanced country, it seems that the mobile usage there states otherwise. In 2006, it was recorded that there were approximately 3.7 billion text messaging sent out per day - this averaged out to only about one message per user per day, a very small number compared to other countries such as Japan.

Even the adoption of 3G was considered extremely slow when it was first introduced in 2005. After conducting a survey, a marketing research company named Taylor Nelson Sofres found that even though 3G capable handsets were readily available to the Taiwan consumers, only about 9% of Taiwanese mobile consumers had signed up for the service and also owned a headset.

1. Reasons for Unsuccessful Social Networking on Mobiles in Taiwan

According to the accounts director of Bates Taiwan, the main reason that social networking on mobile phones would not be successful in Taiwan is due to the many other options available to the consumers. Consumers are spoilt for choice with the range of options made possible by their laptops coupled with the Wi-Fi easily accessible on very street.

Another factor is the relatively shorter distances that the Taiwanese consumers travel compared to those in other countries. In Taiwan, the more convenient and commonly used transport is the car or bicycle. This situation is very different when it is compared to countries like Japan where a train ride can take longer than 40 minutes. Thus this duration of time taken to commute makes social networking on the go more appealing to the Japanese in comparison.

When Far EasTone launched a social networking service on Mobile phones, it failed miserably. The reason for this seems to be the very different mindset of the Taiwanese compared to those in other countries.

What steps could Mobile operators take to make social networking on mobile more appealing to the masses?

Overall, it seems that the two main obstacles that Mobile operators are facing are price and the convenience offered by the product.

When it comes to price, many believe that the transition fee of 3G is still too high to make it appealing to the masses. For example, Taiwan Mobile provides a plan where data transmission is charged at a flat rate allowing users to receive internet access regardless of where they are. However, to benefit from this plan, users have to not only pay a registration fee, but also a monthly fee of NT$699.

Where it concerns convenience, many users find it annoying to text long paragraphs on their mobile phone, thus making activities such as blogging very unattractive. Instead, they prefer sending a short and sweet SMS. Thus, to make social networking appealing, it would make more sense to advertise around micro-blogging websites, where the messages are generally shorter and more concise.

Therefore, to make social networking on mobiles more attractive to the general masses, Telecom companies need to revise their pricing as well as the way they market such services.

2. Trends in Taiwan

In 2005, mobile penetration was rated at 93.5% and SMS rates had grown to 2,796 million. Furthermore, mobile users were also subscribing to more mobile services such as WAP, GPRS and SMS.

A growing number of mobile users are also signing on to online sites such as EzMobo, EzDating and EzFriend. There, users can make friends through SMS, upload their pictures and stream videos clips.

2.1 EzFriend/ EzDating/ EzMobo

EzFriend was the first of the three sites to be launched in September 2002, becoming one of the first online mobile services. In 2006, EzMobo’s user base had grown to 400,000, making it the largest social mobile service provider within Taiwan.

Similar to web-based instant messaging, in EzFriend and EzDating, once users are logged into the portal, their online status will be updated. The only difference is that this mobile community is a public discussion forum without a separate conversation window for pair-based discussion, as in the web-based instant messaging. In terms of community interface, each user is generally presented with a nickname, mood status, the number of e-coins, the number of online users and online friends, the number of new messages, and their level (EzDating). The level, ranging from one to twenty, represents the overall evaluation of a user’s appeal index and force index. For example, if users receive a mail, they will gain ten points. If they use real-world money to purchase accessories for their avatar, their appeal index will increase by 300 to 1000 points.

According to EzMoBo, the display of a user’s level (in terms of their appeal and force indexes) is an incentive for users to be more actively involved in various mobile community activities, including sending and receiving messages, creating a message board, initiating a vote topic and sending a gift. For instance, every time a user’s picture is downloaded by others, he will get 10 e-coins. This mechanism encourages users to make efforts to strengthen their own currency stock as well as monitor other users’ level. As a result of such monitoring, there have been some instances where users complained to EzMoBo about other users’ abnormal level display and the number of virtual currency revealed (referenced from Understanding the Design of Mobile Social Networking: The Example of EzMoBo in Taiwan).

The user demographics are spread across the board, meaning that the Ez Empire is attractive to people of a wide range of age. Demographic details are as follows:

EzFriend users
38.8%: 21-30 years old
12.8%: 31-40 years old

EzDating users
20.1%: 21-30 years old
6% : 31-40 years old

The statistics also suggested that males were more inclined to use the service compared to females with the ratio between the two being six males to every four females. Geographically, most users were found within Taipei and other developed parts within the northern area.

2.2 Comics on Mobile Phone

Being highly influenced by near-by Japan, Taiwanese mobile service providers now offer comic books on mobiles. Since this initiative was so successful in Japan, the Taiwanese went a step further and signed a deal with Cartoon Network for content like the Powerpuff Girls remade into comics for handset users to download and view, the first
such venture by the Time Warner Inc.-owned network.

Apart from the commercial content from Cartoon Network, they are also offering comics based on classic Chinese stories of war and revenge.

What makes reading comics on mobile phones such an interesting activity? "For instance, a punch in the head would have a dramatic effect with a loud bang and vibration" said Christina Hsieh, a Taiwan Mobile official.

Given the difference between Japan and Taiwan over demographic (population) and the maturity of the mobile market,
the Taiwanese are looking for a piece of pie, one tenth the size of that of Japan.

2.3 Launch of Smartphones

Recently, Far EasTone (FET), Taiwan's third largest mobile operator, has announced its entry into the smart phone arena with the launch of several models developed in conjunction with Acer and Commtiva. These included the introduction of three smart phones — the entry level Acer beTouch E100, which runs on the latest Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system; the Acer neoTouch, which was designed with business users in mind; and Commtiva Z1, FET's first Android-based smart phone with an affordable price. All three smartphones are equipped with built-in features which possess multimedia and mobile connectivity features to meet the demands of Taiwanese consumers. These include interfaces which support access to popular social networking sites like Facebook, Wretch.cc and the use of online applications like Google Maps.

Developements of the smartphone optimizes the performance of both the handset and FET applications and services, which provides theTaiwanese market with a mobile device and network that can meet their needs for speed and real-time Internet accessibility to enhance mobile usage in Taiwan.

Sources: FET, partners launch smartphones, http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/t-business/2009/10/16/228894/p2/FET-partners.htm

3. Concluding ideas

The increased usage of mobile phones and computer gaming in the Taiwanese society has become more rampant in the past twenty years.

It seems that the gap between social networking and online gaming has decreased over the years. Sites such as EzFriends and EzDating now include avatars as well as well-known gaming mechanisms such as virtual currency, and role-playing.

In terms of mobile messaging, EzFriend and EzDating are a combination of matchmaking and mobile social networking that utilizes multimedia messaging. Users are able to express themselves through the forums available to them as well as through the ability to upload photographs and video clips. This personalization through mobile phones ties in nicely with the culture of individualism amongst young Taiwanese.

Taiwan: The Taiwan Blogosphere

adamr.2007 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:27:25 CST

Overview of Taiwan's Blogosphere

As a collective, the blogosphere in Taiwan rivals another forms of mass media in terms of reach, time spent by users as well as political, social and cultural impact. Blogs illustrate the fundamental shift in how users utilize the internet today by invoking participation from them. Across its active internet base, blogging in Taiwan has become a popular channel for the propagation of individual opinions and ideas with 86.6 % of Taiwanese having read a blog, and 70.9% having started a blog themselves. This figure translates to about 1.5 million people read blogs daily in Taiwan (roughly 5 percent of the population) and approximately 800,000 blogs in Taiwan which are updated regularly (once per week).

Demographics in Taiwan's Blogosphere

Wan Wan. Amaryliss. Amykaku. Ya-Ya Ching. Taiwan is a country filled with star bloggers which exude star appeal. Bloggers who display quirkness, creativity, whimsy or imagination in blog posts about their personal daily life dominate the blogosphere in Taiwan. Blogging as become such a phenomenon in Taiwan to the extent that local enthusiastic bloggers have launched a self-organized yearly blooger conference known as TW Bloggers BoF, where a large number of Taiwanese bloggers congregate to share their views and insights about each other's blogs.

There is also a growing trend in Taiwan which has seen the profileration of more business and/or consumer affairs blogs. Two industries in particular are leading the charge: Consumer electronics and travel and tourism. Companies in Taiwan understand the importance of tapping into the social media market for business value, and have started closely following online conversations. This has resulted in the cultivating of relationships with bloggers and led Taiwanese businesses to invest in corporate innovation within the blogosphere.

English vs Chinese Blogs

Taiwan’s blogosphere can be broadly categorized into two groups: English and Chinese blogs. The former comprises expatriates from Western countries who blog in English and the latter of local bloggers who use traditional Mandarin.

According to Scott Sommers, an influential figure within Taiwan’s expatriate blogging community, most English blogs are dominated by cross-strait relations and the domestic politics resulting from it. Within this community is another subset known as the Western Christian missionary bloggers, who are not interested in communicating with other expatriate bloggers.

Despite the fact that most Taiwanese bloggers are fluent in English, current efforts to bridge the English and Chinese blogging communities have met with little success. One of the reasons cited is that local bloggers are uncertain about how they will be perceived through the usage of English. Moreover, there is a trend where most Taiwanese blogs in English are written under platforms such as blogspot and typepad, which have limited personalization features and subdomains which the bloggers have little control over. In additon, English Taiwan blogs and websites do very little website optimization and link promotion, which results in little exposure.

Sources:

1. English Taiwan: The websphere, the blogosphere, traffic, SEO and the need for profound change, http://www.filination.com/blog/2007/03/19/taiwan-the-websphere-the-blogosphere-traffic-seo-and-the-need-for-a-profound-change/

2. Taiwan blogosphere: Gaining steam, http://www.edelmanapac.com/edelman/blog/2006/08/16/Taiwan-Blogosphere-Gaining-Steam-1.html

3. Ogilvy insight, Can brands have a social life?

Corporate Blogs

Corporate Blogs

A Billionaire's Blog

Taiwan’s wealthiest man, Terry Guo Taiming (郭台銘), a billionaire and the CEO of a Forbes Top 500 company – electronics manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, has a blog at http://terrygoufoxconn.blog.china.alibaba.com/. (Note: Foxconn Technology Group is the subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.)

Terry Guo’s blog is hosted at Alibaba China, which is China’s largest e-commerce company and online marketplace for domestic trade. After conquering much of the global electronics manufacturing territory, Chinese-language reports have speculated that Terry is now setting his sights on something less tangible: the virtual world. An influential Taiwanese newspaper, the Commercial Times, has predicted that Mr. Guo is planning to make a $100 million investment in Alibaba.

While his reasons for maintaining a blog are unclear, Mr. Guo made remarks in his blog predicting that Asia’s e-commerce development will catch up with the West. He likened the importance of the internet economy to “a pair of wings that would allow a tiger to fly”, and pointed out that information technology will lead to new global patterns of production. In his blog entries, Guo often writes on topics relating to business – how businesses can remain competitive and what he feels is the formula for success in the business world. In one blog entry, he also expressed his views about how he is able to use the blog to respond to situations, media reports that involve him, or things that interest him. However, there are only five blog entries to date, and he was only active from September 2007 to October 2007.

Dell's Solutions

Dell Inc. maintains a Chinese blog at www.direct2dell.com/chinese, making it the first Chinese-language blog ever started by a computer systems company. Taiwan is home to some of the most important technology companies in the world, and Dell is one of the major trading partners of these Taiwanese companies.

Blog master Jacqui Zhou explained that the blog had become a necessity to make sure its communications keep pace with its growth, and enable it to better serve and directly communicate with its customers. Dell allows workers to post entries on new products and services, personal and work experiences, and more. Customers are also able to post entries on the blog, including leaving topics and notes for Dell workers to comment on through the blog.

Politicking

The former Chairman and present Chairman Emeritus of Taiwanese manufacturing firm UMC – a world-leading semiconductor foundry, Bob Tsao, maintains a blog at http://blog.yam.com/straitpeace. Bob Tsao’s blog entries are mainly about the Taiwan elections and politics. He commands a lot of authority and respect as a former Chairman of such a huge organization, and he is also a very knowledgeable man. His blog has a total site visit of 192,614, and his popular entries have garnered more than 1,000 comments

For the Technophiles

CNet Taiwan, a popular online portal which provides access to premier tech product reviews, news, daily videos and free downloads, hosts its own online blogging community at http://taiwan.cnet.com/blog/. These CNet Taiwanese bloggers provide great insights into all things tech-related and more

Taiwan Tourism Bureau

Instead of publishing a blog to promote Taiwan, the Taiwan tourism bureau launched a unique campaign which capitalized on the mass appeal of blogs. TheTaiwan Tourism Bureau is inviting people from around the world to form their own teams of at least two people, one of whom must be a foreign national, to come up with a money-saving, yet creative four-day itinerary for a trip in Taiwan. Fifty teams that come up with the best itineraries were selected, each receiving NT$7,000 (approx. US$212) per day for up to four days (NT$28,000, approx. US$848, in total), to spend during their trip in Taiwan. Teams will also have a chance to win the grand prize - NT$1,000,000 (approx. US$30,000) to travel in Taiwan for a month. These fifty teams were tasked with the duty to produce a short video and write a 200-word entry unto the Taiwan Tourism Bureau's blog site, charting their activities each day in their itinerary. The initiative generated a large amount of publicity and visibility to not only the Taiwanese Tourism Bureau, but also promoted Taiwan as an exciting tourist destination worth visiting.

Blogging @ 7-Eleven

7-Eleven, which operates the largest chain of convenience stores in Taiwan (commonly known to Taiwanese as the equivalent of the US Wal-Mart), has a Taiwanese blog at http://www.7-11.com.tw/open-chan/blog/blog.asp.

To date, the blog has had a staggering 1,097,829 hits and counting. It is a cartoon-themed blog with adorable and interactive cartoon characters. The blog is centered on Taiwan 7-Eleven’s mascot “Open-Chan!” (OPEN小將!), a cartoon character which appeals to their main target market which is the younger crowd. It is especially popular amongst teenage girls.

The main purpose of the blog is to appeal to and connect with its younger customers, whilst at the same time building long-term relationships with them. The blog is also linked to a website with free downloads for computer-desktop wallpapers and MSN Messenger “emoticons”. “Open-Chan!” the mascot, regularly posts updates of events (sponsored by 7-Eleven) and pictures on the blog. Additionally, merchandise of its mascot are sold on the blog.

Books.com.tw

Books.com.tw, the largest online bookstore in Taiwan recently adopted a creative approach to boost sales – by offering revenue-sharing with bloggers. The online bookstore is cooperating with So-net, an internet service provider in Taiwan, to offer a product recommendation service that will allow sharing of revenues with bloggers who participate. Essentially Books.com.tw is looking to provide a variety of application program interfaces to help blog owners set up advertising links between their blogs and the company’s website, and blog owners can comment on and recommend books, magazines or any other goods. For any goods sold through the links, the respective blog owners will be entitled to share up to 4% of the sales revenue. Apart from books.com.tw, Yahoo! Kimo Mall (the online shopping store of Taiwan’s largest internet portal), have also adopted such sales promotions through cooperation with blog owners.

Star Bloggers

Star Bloggers

The appeal of “cute cartoon” blogs are vastly popular amongst the teenagers in Taiwan, as
exemplified by the success of Wanwan’s blog.

In October 2004, a young blogger Hu Jia-wei began blogging about her life and home with the intention of sharing her daily reflections with friends and family members. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that her blog, titled Wanwan’s Comic blog at http://www.wretch.cc/blog/cwwany, would become the most popular personality blog in Taiwan and making her one of the top Taiwanese bloggers. Till date and counting, her blog has a total visit of 116,137,872 visitors!

‘Cute’ is the theme of the whole blog and the blog became famous because of the cute cartoon character “Wanwan”, which happens to be the nick name of the blogger. The cartoon character and comic series designed solely by the blogger are humorous animated depictions of the various moods of office life, such as busy, tired, depressed, annoyed and bored. They have spread all over the internet and many people use them every day to express themselves online.

With the significant growth of viewers and fans, the blog is currently a business rather than a personal journal blog. In 2005, Wanwan published her first book titled “I hate to work, but enjoy my life” which went on to sell more than 100,000 copies despite the fact that much of the material in the book had previously appeared on her blog for free. The book surged to the top of the bestseller lists at major Taiwanese bookstores such as Kingstone and Eslite, and at online retailer books.com.tw. With that, Kingstone Books named her one of its Outstanding People in Publishing and Author of the Year 2005. Two sequels were published over the next two years and they too became bestsellers. She has since sold the publishing rights of publications to China, South Korea, and Thailand.

However in recent times, critiques of the blog have said that the blog has lost its feelings as the blogger seems to have moved away from drawing for herself to drawing for her audience. Also, critiques have said that before the blog became famous, audiences could read some articles which were written by Wanwan, but nowadays all entries are in image form, giving audiences the lack of opportunity to know more about the blogger.

Nevertheless, Wanwan’s blog is a great example of how businesses can thrive on Taiwan’s blogging scene. Wanwan is now famous and appears in some television advertisements. Wanwan has also been sought out for endorsement deals by various companies and talks have been going around that her comic mascot may soon be marketed, much like the “Hello Kitty” mascots. With all her engagements, Wanwan has quit her old day job and is learning to make a living as a professional cartoonist. This is an amazing account of how a blogger in Taiwan may gain fame and fortune, and how blogs provide business opportunities.