The total brand value of Taiwan’s top 20 brands hit US$9.36 billion this year, a rise of 7.9 percent from last year, according to Interbrand Consulting.
“The rise in brand values is mostly attributed to Taiwanese firms’ especially successful forays into the emerging markets of BRIIC [Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia and China],” according to a statement from Interbrand, which also helps rank the annual 100 Best Global Brands for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.
This year, brand values of each of the top five firms surpassed the US$1 billion mark, with Acer Inc (宏碁) — the world’s No. 3 PC maker — valued at US$1.4 billion, leading smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) valued at US$1.37 billion and the world’s No. 5 PC brand, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), at US$1.29 billion.
Anti-virus maker Trend Micro Inc (趨勢科技) is valued at US$1.23 billion and Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp (康師傅控股), also known as Master Kong, is valued at US$1.1 billion.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs, which commissioned Interbrand to do the survey for an eighth consecutive year, has set a goal for the values of each of the top five brands surpassing US$1 billion by 2013.
However, the results released yesterday showed that the goal has been achieved two years ahead of schedule.
Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), Taiwan’s largest food maker and No. 11 brand, which was valued at US$197 million, is a case in point about riding on the potential of BRIIC.
In addition to China, which makes up 60 percent of its food sales, Uni-President is targeting Southeast Asia — especially Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines — for new growth engines, said the company’s public affairs director, Selina Wu (吳旭慧), on the sidelines of the awards ceremony.
The company only saw its Southeast Asia business break even last year, after more than 10 years of operations in the market, she said.
It adjusted its strategies by ditching low-end products to focus on middle and high-end products, as well as expanding channels in bigger cities, which helped the business move into the black, Wu said.
Taiwan’s leading bicycle maker Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) is also seeing a boom from the Chinese market.
The company is expected to sell as many as 300,000 bicycles in China this year, up from 200,000 sold last year, senior marketing vice president William Jeng (鄭文祥) said.
“We are not competing in the 600 yuan [US$89] to 800 yuan bicycle segment. We are targeting sports cyclists instead of commuting cyclists,” he said.
According to Jeng, average sale prices of Merida bicycles are 2,000 yuan — a growth of 40 percent from last year.
Its production facility in Shandong Province, China, which is able to churn out 500,000 bicycles annually, is seeing a utilization rate of 60 percent, with 100 percent utilization to be achieved in two years, in line with market growth in China, Jeng added.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS