About half of Facebook users in Taiwan have searched for, purchased or sold products through the social network, a survey published on Tuesday showed.
The survey conducted by Facebook and market research firm TNS Taiwan found that 33 percent of the 1,019 Facebook users surveyed have shared, commented on or recommended products, services or travel packages they have used.
Another 22 percent of respondents said they would purchase products recommended by their friends on Facebook, nearly twice as many as those who said they have made purchases after searching for products on the site (12 percent).
Facebook said its number of active users in Taiwan has reached 15 million per month, accounting for about 80 percent of the nation’s overall Internet users, and about 13 million people use mobile devices to access Facebook.
With this high penetration rate, small and medium-sized firms should use Facebook as an advertising platform to increase the exposure of their products or services, said Nicole Chou (周雁冰), Facebook’s head of e-commerce for the Greater China region.
“Taiwan is a key market for us,” Chou told a press conference in Taipei. “With more than 15 million Taiwanese using Facebook per month, it creates huge opportunities for Taiwanese businesses that want to reach more customers.”
Arrow Guo (郭駿弦), head of small and medium-sized businesses for Greater China and Southeast Asia at Facebook, said he hopes for higher active Facebook users and average length of stay per user in Taiwan thanks to the growing popularity of handheld devices.
Facebook is also developing more advertising tools to help businesses find their targeted customers on the network, Guo said.
Taiwan’s e-commerce market is expected to reach NT$1 trillion (US$33.3 billion) by next year, according to statistics from Yahoo Taiwan’s e-commerce group.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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