Taiwanese high-tech companies are bucking the trend of declining exhibitor numbers at Cebit 2003, the world's largest computer trade show, increasing their presence some 11 percent over last year. This contrasts with a 10-percent decline in the overall number of exhibitors this year.
Despite the current economic uncertainties, the Taiwanese are upbeat on the annual expo -- which opens in the northern German city of Hannover today -- a cost-effective way to meet many potential customers, industry watchers said yesterday.
"It doesn't matter what the state of the economy is, companies still have to do business," said Sakura Yang (
This is the sixth year in a row that the Taiwanese make up the largest group of overseas exhibitors at Cebit, totaling almost a quarter of all foreign companies at the show.
A total of 655 Taiwanese companies -- up from 589 last year -- will showcase their latest products to an expected audience of 650,000 people at the exhibition. The largest exhibitor contingent comes from the host nation -- 3,700 out of a total of 6,526 -- with the second largest overseas grouping coming from the US with 247 companies.
A local representative of Cebit said the Taiwanese know that investing in expanding business contacts in a slowing economy is vital.
"Cebit as a world event is again attractive for [Taiwan's] industries which have learned the hard way that it pays to advertise anti-cyclically, and to fight where others resign," Dieter Neuman, senior adviser at Hannover Pacific Corp, said in a statement.
Cebit is by far the largest trade show in the world, dwarfing the world's No. 2, Comdex Fall in Las Vegas, which drew in barely 125,000 visitors last year from a high of over 200,000 in 2001.
But Cebit is also in decline. Only two years ago, the show could draw over 8,000 exhibitors and more than 800,000 visitors, but this year the show will host 6,500 booths and 650,000 visitors, according to figures from the show's organizers, Deutsche Messe AG.
The organizers of Cebit tried to put a positive spin on the show's declining numbers in a statement. "In view of the prevailing economic stagnation and budgetary belt-tightening, the information and communications technology industry is looking to Cebit as an indicator of what types of investments users are likely to be making this year," spokesperson Gabriele Doerries said.
One of Taiwan's newest brands that will have a strong presence at the show is BenQ Corp (
"It is important for BenQ to be present in this major international show," Jerry Wang (
"Last year was a great success for us. People were impressed by our products, by the booth design. They felt this was an international brand backed up by in-depth technologies," Wang said.
In fact, BenQ launched its new brand at last year's Cebit.
"We needed to re-familiarize our existing channels of the change from Acer to BenQ to rebuild confidence last year," he said. "We wanted to say `this is a big brand, a big player in the world.' It was not a smooth transition immediately, but last year's revenue proves that it was a success."
Cebit is primarily a trade show, where companies make deals with regional or national distributors, large retailers and resellers, Wang said. At this year's event BenQ will be showing off a new notebook computer that is powerful enough to download, manipulate and store digital photos and video, and a device that allows users to wirelessly send live digital video from computers to flat-screen televisions.
BenQ is Taiwan's largest maker of mobile phone handsets. It will also display the latest color screen smart phones that double as digital personal organizers.
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