GAMING
Cayenne to list in Taipei
Mobile game distributor Cayenne Ark Mobile Co Ltd (辣椒方舟), an affiliate of Cayenne Entertainment Technology Co (紅心辣椒), is to list today on the Taipei Exchange’s Emerging Stock Board at NT$20 per share. Cayenne Ark chairman Joe Deng (鄧潤澤) yesterday told a news conference that the company has a challenging year ahead due to intensified market competition and the hit mobile game Pokemon Go. The company reported net losses of NT$15.05 million (US$476,900) in the first half of this year, compared with a net income of NT$16.03 million during the same period last year. Deng said the company plans to introduce a new mobile game in Taiwan at the end of this year and four more games next year, making them Cayenne Ark’s main growth drivers next year. Deng declined to offer a revenue forecast for next year.
COSMETICS
Namchow inks skincare MOU
Cooking oil manufacturer Namchow Chemical Industrial Co (南僑化學工業) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Metal Industries Research and Development Center (金屬工業研究發展中心), marking a further step into the natural skincare market. Under its self-owned brand, the company hopes to distribute high-priced cosmetic products with natural ingredients from Taiwan to global customers, Namchow chairman Alfred Chen (陳飛龍) said at a signing ceremony in Taipei, without giving a schedule.
STEELMAKERS
CSC appoints chairman
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s largest steel mill, said in a press release yesterday that the company’s board approved the appointment of Wong Chao-tung (翁朝棟) as chairman. The board also named vice president Liu Jih-gang (劉季剛) to take over Wong’s position as president. In a separate release, the company reported pretax profit for the first nine months of this year of NT$16.67 billion, soaring 40 percent from the same period last year, after pretax profit of NT$8.83 billion last quarter, its highest quarterly level this year.
SOCIETY
Kaoshiung to host expo
The Maker Wisdom Expo, an event that allows artists and organizations to showcase their work and interact with others, is to take place at the Chung Cheng Martial Arts Stadium in Kaohsiung on Nov. 19 and Nov. 20, organizers said yesterday. Now in its second year, the expo is to have 125 booths set up by 65 schools and businesses for exhibitions, presentations and demonstrations, the Kaohsiung City Government said.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Line reports Q3 profit
Line Corp reported third-quarter profit and revenue that missed analysts’ estimates as the company pushes into advertising to offset slowing growth in its user base. Operating profit was ￥4.9 billion (US$47 million) in the period ended Sept. 30, according to calculations based on nine-month numbers released by Line yesterday, while sales reached ￥35.9 billion in the period. Line said its monthly active users totaled 220 million as of last month, a 3.5 percent increase from a year earlier. That was slightly lower than the previous quarter, when subscribers increased 4.1 percent, and the slowest growth in at least two years. Line expects annual sales to increase in the period ending Dec. 31, helped by advertising revenue. The company did not give a full-year earnings forecast.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
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