The long-term operations of the 80-year-old National Palace Museum cannot be sustained solely through admission fees and renting out space for events, the museum's director Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗) told reporters last week.
Lin made the remarks on Thursday while unveiling a new online museum store -- one of the many high-tech partnerships and initiatives that the museum hopes will boost revenues, create a better-known brand and help connect the museum's collection with a global audience.
The museum, which draws around 1.5 million to 2 million visitors a year, must find other alternatives to help increase its income and create a unique, international identity, she said.
"In this era, a museum is no longer just a cultural showroom, it has turned into an economic body," Lin said. "It has become critical for museums to create stronger bonding between cultural artifacts and the public, and bring `value-added' to the national economy."
The museum is working with designers to churn out around 100 products per year inspired by the 650,000 items in its vast collection. It has already produced some 3,000 products.
The mass production of these products -- including a bottle-opener bearing a dragon shape, or teacups that are reproductions of Qing Dynasty porcelain -- are intended to project the National Palace Museum "brand" to the world.
Last year, the museum reported revenues of NT$223 million (US$6.88 million). Of this, NT$110 million was generated from businesses including admissions, brand and image licensing, as well as sales of souvenirs and reproductions based on China's ancient treasures.
Not content with those results, the National Palace Museum has vowed to increase its revenues tenfold to NT$2 billion within the next five years, with licensing and merchandise sales as the main cash cows.
The museum hopes that its new e-commerce Web site at www.npmeshop.com will help it meet those ambitious goals.
To expand its merchandise sales beyond its physical shops, the museum decided to collaborate with e-commerce platform provider High Value Information Technology Corp (
The online store is the fruit of that partnership.
"The portal is open to businesses and consumers, making our offerings available to local buyers and foreigners alike," Lin said.
There are around 400 products now available through the portal, which Lin forecasts will rake in revenues of NT$10 million within the first year.
The establishment of the online store is in line with the museum's ambition to keep pace with its world-class peers.
In New York, the 136-year-old Metropolitan Museum of Art pumps US$1 million into improving its Web site every year.
Besides providing a different view of the inside of the museum every day, the Met's Web site offers basic information such as admission and operating hours, activities for children such as learning to draw like Vincent van Gogh and sales of special items that are only available to privileged members.
Since the site was redesigned in 2000, its online sales have grown to nearly US$1 million a year, the New York Times reported.
The site now attracts 15 million visitors a year, more than three times the 4.5 million visitors that reach its doorsteps on Fifth Avenue.
In order to reach greater heights, Lin -- who assumed the directorship of the National Palace Museum in January and is the first woman to hold that post -- said the museum may need more than just an online portal.
RSS