Cross-border online spending by Taiwanese last year rose 5.4 percent annually to an average of NT$16,378 per person, according to a survey released on March 15 by the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所).
The growth indicates that cross-border online shopping is gaining popularity in Taiwan, reversing a tepid increase in the previous two years, MIC senior industry analyst Rosa Chang (張筱祺) said.
The survey conducted by the market research division of the Taipei-based Institute for Information Industry (資策會) found that people in the 26-to-35 age group comprised the largest demographic making purchases on overseas shopping sites.
According to the poll, 69.5 percent of respondents favored China’s Taobao.com (淘寶) and Tmall.com (天貓) e-commerce sites, 19.3 percent preferred Japan’s Rakuten Inc, 17.9 percent favored Amazon.com Inc’s Japanese Web site, 14.2 percent preferred the US’ Amazon.com and 7.2 percent chose eBay Inc.
In terms of products purchased, clothing items were the largest category, accounting for 39.3 percent of total purchases, followed by daily necessity products (36.9 percent), technology products (35.6 percent), designer bags and shoes (20.9 percent) and home appliances (11.8 percent), the MIC said.
The survey found that men shopping online purchased technology products the most, while clothing was the favorite type of purchase for women.
Average spending by men was NT$18,279 last year, higher than the average of NT$14,171 spent by women, it showed.
About 59.1 percent of respondents said favorable pricing was the reason why they chose cross-border online shopping, 56.1 percent said foreign sites usually offered products that their Taiwanese counterparts lacked, 24.6 percent said foreign shopping sites offered a wider range of products, 24.1 percent said they were attracted to large discounts and 11.2 percent said the quality of products on foreign shopping sites was better.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last