Three major local organizations put forth bids to wire Taiwan's bicycle industry into business-to-business e-commerce networks at Taipei Cycle 2000, the annual trade fair which ends today.
Taiwan trade media leader Trade Winds, bicycle manufacturer Pacific Cycles Inc and the government sponsored Taiwan Bicycle Industry R&D Center (TBIRDC) all exhibited their Web strategies for streamlining one of Taiwan's top traditional industries.
Trade Winds and Pacific Cycles decided on complementary approaches, with Trade Winds targeting buyers and Pacific Cycles looking to recruit suppliers.
TBIRDC, meanwhile, has not yet produced a site, though sources in the organization stated that its site, www.bikeglobal.com, will go live sometime within the next two months.
Other industry sources indicated that TBIRDC may be looking to cooperate with either Pacific or Trade Winds because of it's relatively late start.
"The TBEA [Taiwan Bicycle Exporters' Association] has asked the R&D Center to stop development of its site, but they won't do it because they will lose face," the source said. "Because they are government funded, they can't stop because they will lose their budget, and once they lose their budget, they will never get it back."
That will likely leave Trade Winds and Pacific as the main competitors. Though both sites are still far from complete in the way of content, they have already established the formats and services they have to offer.
Of the two, Pacific's services are the most complete. Its site acts as a portal, software provider and business tracker. Business functions allow subscribers to receive orders, monitor delivery schedules and compile marketing data based on previous transactions.
Embedded software further enables a subscriber's workforce to open specialized files -- including 2D and 3D parts blueprints -- from a browser.
Thus, the need to install technical software on every terminal within a computer system is eliminated. To provide prospective buyers with convenient search functions, Pacific's search engine lets users input up to eight separate criteria per search.
"In other search engines, you get a list of 200 products that all look the same, but that's totally useless," said Pacific CEO Michael Lin.
Pacific's site, www.bike-xpo.com, and its applications were developed at a cost of NT$30 million over the past two years.
"Because we've been using [the Web site ourselves, it's already debugged," Lin said.
So far, Pacific has used its system to handle orders from about 60 different clients. The company has also seen a decrease in its telecommunications expenses, from NT$200,000 per month three years ago to just NT$20,000 per month today.
On the third day of Taipei Cycle 2000, Lin said that his company had already registered at least 20 of Taiwan's biggest bicycle companies, including RST forks manufacturer Dah Ken, Cheng Shin Rubber and complete bicycles maker Fairly Bike Manufacturing.
Pacific provides its Web services to companies on the basis of an annual subscription fee of NT$300,000. No transaction charges are assessed when orders are placed.
Trade Wind's new site, www.bicyclesB2B.com, mainly endeavors to fulfill catalogue functions at present, though company officials say that transaction capabilities will be added within the year.
The company's main goal is to put its annual phone book-sized catalog online and provide buyers with a personalized and customized portal for sourcing from Taiwan's bicycle industry.
For no charge, the Trade Wind's site offers buyers an individualized platform to conduct business and searches.
By going online, Trade Winds officials feel that they can improve their current printed catalogue. The directory currently contains about 600 company entries, though the digital format will hold twice that.
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