Breaktime Inc (富盈數據), a data technology start-up that develops advertisement revenue for bloggers, yesterday forecast strong near-term revenue growth as it continues to tap into a growing readership.
The company — which was founded last year and operates Zi.Media Network, a platform for blogs and articles — expects revenue to exceed NT$200 million (US$6.49 million) this year and surpass NT$1 billion in the next three years, CEO Andy Chen (陳顯立) told a news conference in Taipei.
Following the closure of Taiwan’s largest blog sites, Zi.Media Network has accumulated more than 1,000 Web site operators and 400 blogs and original content creators, which have accrued an estimated 886 million page views, the company said.
Photo: Chen Ping-hung, Taipei Times
Breaktime, a 55 percent-owned investee of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), leverages its proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze blog content and readers to provide advertisers with the right audience to maximize marketing spending effectiveness.
The company also helps bloggers earn more from advertisement platform operators, including Google, Yahoo Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩) and Oath Inc.
In June, it launched a service that manages ad placement for bloggers, promising a 1.1 to 1.5-fold increase in advertisement earnings over six months.
Since then, more than 80 percent of bloggers are on track to hit their earnings growth targets, Breaktime said, adding that by using its service, writers can focus on content.
The company also outlined plans to introduce its technology and business model into Southeast Asian markets next year.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the