A Singapore-based international bookstore has attracted the attention of local rivals with the soft opening this week of what it says is the largest bookstore in Taiwan.
Page One, established in 1983, made its debut in Taiwan on Monday on the fourth floor of the Taipei 101 Mall. With 720 ping of sales area, the company said it aims to become the largest international mega-bookstore in the country.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"Taiwan is the place with the most vigorous growth in the world in the Chinese-book-trading market," said Dennis Liu (劉春豪), the bookstore's corporate affairs manager.
The Taipei 101 branch is Page One's 11th store, following expansion to Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Australia.
The company invested about NT$150 million in the new branch, which will stock 170,000 books in Chinese and 160,000 in English. It is particularly proud of the 20,000 books it will offer on art and design.
"Our huge selection of art and design books is our distinguishing feature from the competitors," Liu said. "The estimated 85,000 highly educated office workers in Taipei 101 will be the target customers for our numerous books in English."
Page One hopes to draw 5,000 visitors daily and expects to create sales of NT$35 million in its first year, Liu said.
Some booklovers praised Page One's interior design and ample space, as well as its plentiful supply of books in English.
"The new and big space is comfortable and the abundant selection of books offered can meet consumers' needs," said Sophia Su, a 30 year-old teacher.
Another customer agreed, saying the rest corners and lighted areas made customers feel respected.
"I think it makes the store more appealing than Eslite (
Eslite Co, the nation's largest bookstore chain with 50 outlets, denied Page One's claim of being Taiwan's largest, or even best, bookstore.
"Our flagship store [at the intersection of Jenai Rd. and Tunhua S. Rd.] measures 1,500 ping and has sales of more than NT$40 million per month," said Lee Yu-hwa (
In addition to the ample art and architecture books which draw lots of artists and architects, Eslite in 1999 started operating 24 hours a day at its flagship store, Lee said.
While welcoming the competition, Eslite said it expected to increase sales to NT$5.2 billion this year from NT$4 billion last year and open up to 10 more outlets.
"Our more than 80,000 loyal members that shop at least three times a month, spending an average of NT$1,000 every time, are our valuable asset and competitive edge," she said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS