World's laptops sport local talent

Taiwan's top computer maker Acer Inc (宏電) has been selling its goods in China for several years but analysts are not impressed by its growth there.

Home-grown success

Acer is far from the top of the heap in terms of brand recognition, coming well behind China's Legend Ltd (聯想控股) and foreign companies like Dell Computer and IBM.

As a local firm, Legend's advertising and sales channels are more widespread than Acer's.

Legend, the top seller, has more than 30 percent of market share in China, while Acer ranks fifth in PC sales with less than 10 percent of the market.

Acer Communications and Multimedia (明電), which mainly sells monitors, scanners, cell phones and digital cameras, was renamed Benq Corp last month and started selling "Benq" branded products this year.

This was done to distinguish the consumer-goods business from Acer's traditional hardware image.

But Acer and other Taiwan firms don't have to look far to see the need for a wide distribution network in a giant country of 1.3 billion people.

Some of Taiwan's most successful brand names in China have been outside the high-tech sector, and those firms say their success comes from spending years building up such a network.

Tsann Kuen (燦坤), which makes home appliances on contract but also sells under its "Eupa" brand name in China, has grown its mainland operation large enough to list its Tsann Kuen (China) subsidiary on China's Shenzhen bourse.

"We have been in China since 1988 and working closely with around 100 local distributors across the mainland. That's why we can succeed today," said Catherine Tien (田竹英), Tsann Kuen spokeswoman.

Another success is a noodle maker.

Set up in 1992 by the Wei brothers from Taiwan with a popular "Master Kang" (康師傅) brand, Tingyi (Cayman Island) Holdings is now China's top instant noodle maker, with 38.5 percent of the mainland market. Tingyi has 14 production facilities and 43 units on the mainland.