Eyeing Taiwan's e-commerce potential, California-based online market place eBay Inc bought local e-commerce venture NeoCom Technology Co (力傳資訊) yesterday for US$9.5 million in cash.
"We're excited about the tremendous e-commerce growth potential in Taiwan, with its rapidly increasing Internet and broadband penetration," said Stephanie Tilenius, Vice President, eBay International.
Taiwan is the third largest e-commerce market in Asia, and the ninth in the world, with more than 6.5 million people online, she said.
"Since the online-auction market is still in its initial stage in Taiwan, the sector has a lot of room to grow," Tilenius said.
Taiwan's e-commerce market will enjoy a 65 percent year-on-year growth between this year and 2005, and sales of the sector will hit US$14 billion in 2005, she said.
Based on the agreement signed on Feb. 9 and announced yesterday, eBay will acquire a 100 percent stake of NeoCom for US$9.5 million in cash.
NeoCom, entered the e-commerce sector in 1998, and currently operates two shopping Web sites -- ubid.com.tw (買賣王) and bid.com.tw (拍賣王). With NT$400 million in sales last year, NeoCom is now capitalized at NT$104 million, Kung said.
EBay's Taiwan Web site won't be immediately accessible.
"We will use the current brands [ubid.com.tw and bid.com.tw] for a while, as we slowly introduce eBay to local users," Tilenius said.
In the long-term, the eBay brand will be used as the main brand for all services, he said.
When all migration is done, Taiwan eBay users will be able to trade products globally.
"In addition to regional eBay sites, consumers who are interested in auctioning goods overseas can connect to the global trading platform on our main site [ebay.com]," said Jeff Noles, senior manager of eBay's Asia Pacific Operations.
All of NeoCom's 53 staff members will be retained and its CEO will leave in two months.
"I personally prefer to be a entrepreneur, starting a company from scratch," said Kein Lin (林啟東), CEO at NeoCom. "For the short term, I will stay here to help these two firms converge. After that I plan to work for another company."
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
DOMESTIC SUPPLY: The probe comes as Donald Trump has called for the repeal of the US$52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which the US Congress passed in 2022 The Office of the US Trade Representative is to hold a hearing tomorrow into older Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors that could heap more US tariffs on chips from China that power everyday goods from cars to washing machines to telecoms equipment. The probe, which began during former US president Joe Biden’s tenure in December last year, aims to protect US and other semiconductor producers from China’s massive state-driven buildup of domestic chip supply. A 50 percent US tariff on Chinese semiconductors began on Jan. 1. Legacy chips use older manufacturing processes introduced more than a decade ago and are often far simpler than
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would