As dotcoms worldwide close their doors, lay off workers and hock their gear to pay back venture capitalists, a new firm in Taiwan hopes to take advantage of its own shoestring budget and the growth of biotechnology.
The newly launched Biotech Web site -- BiotechEast (
"Until now, anyone looking for information about biotechnology in Taiwan in English had a torrid time. Most of it is in Chinese, which made government hopes for attracting foreign capital and technology to the industry seem a little ambitious," said David Silver, president of BiotechEast yesterday.
The company's Web site, biotecheast.com, which launched earlier this week, includes an online database of nearly 600 Taiwanese companies involved in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, and includes a listing of government backed research centers like Academia Sinica and the Industrial Technology Research Institute's Biomedical Center (工研院).
A look at the Web site, however, does not answer the big question people have for dotcom companies these days: how will it make money?
"We wrote a business plan with a lot of potential revenue streams," said Silver. "Our plan is to keep our operating costs down while we work through those ideas to see which ones pan out."
One of the fledgling company's ideas is to enlist sponsors for the Web site in this, its formative time. Silver pointed out that the promotion of Taiwan's biotech scene to the world could bring revenue to a number of local companies. Law firms, for example, who help with technology transfer and investment contracts could find the Web site a natural draw for new, biotech related customers.
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