PC Home Online (網路家庭), Tai-wan's fourth-largest Internet portal, kicked off yesterday its online software store. The company plans to rake in NT$80 million in sales next year on a product lineup of over 600 items.
The company is ignoring widespread speculation that the business-to-customer (B2C) electronic commerce platform will not succeed in Taiwan, as a result of a convenient shopping environment and online security concerns.
"The Internet is a perfect marketplace to sell software ? customers can buy products at any time with just a click," Jan Hung-tze (詹宏志), CEO of PC Home Group, which owns PC Home Online, said at a launching ceremony yesterday.
As the largest virtual software retailer in Taiwan, PC Home Online currently works with over a hundred software makers to provide a wide range of software including multimedia, graphics and network tools, Jan said.
These software companies include Microsoft Corp, anti-virus software makers Trend Micro Inc (
Unlike brick-and-mortar stores or online software retailers that merely sell box-set software, PC Home Online's Web site allows consumers to choose an Electronic Software Distribution (ESD) version, meaning the customer can download products over the Internet. The ESD version of a software product will be cheaper than box-set software, as there is no packing-and-delivery charge.
Tu Tze-chen (杜紫宸), president of GrandTech, the agent for the Adobe series of products in Taiwan, said he is confident that the Internet will gradually become the main platform for software sales.
"I'm surprised that we sold more products on the Internet than in general stores," Tu said. "These changes in shopping behavior will make the Internet a more important marketing channel."
Jan agreed with Tu, saying that online business is still a sector worthy of investment.
In fact, Jan indicated that the new software sales model is built on the company's success with its software-downloading Web site toget.pchome.com.tw, which offers both freeware and purchasable software.
The site has brought in considerable profits for the company. Along with PC Home Online's shopping site, the software site garnered about NT$100 million per month for the company, Jan said.
"We estimate that the software Web site will bring in NT$80 million next year," Jan said.
But not every company has reason to be so optimistic about its e-commerce platforms. A survey released by TechVantage Magazine (e
An example he cited was eBay Inc, the world's largest online marketplace well-known for its auction services. EBay also provides space for small companies to conduct business.
"This is also a pattern that local companies should try first before they arbitrarily conclude that B2C e-commerce in Taiwan has no future," Jan said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS