The nation’s online commerce is expected to surpass the NT$300 billion (US$9.12 billion) mark this year to reach NT$312 billion, demonstrating year-on-year growth of 30.54 percent from last year, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said on Thursday.
As a country, Taiwan has been relatively slow to embrace Internet commerce, the CEPD said.
“However, since 2006, when official figures were first published, Taiwan has reported the highest annual growth rate in the world. From 2006’s NT$134 billion to 2008’s NT$239 billion, there is an astounding 80 percent growth for the three-year duration,” it said.
The council has commissioned Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) under the Institute for Information Industry, to conduct research on its behalf.
Web commerce is divided into two categories: online auction (consumer-to-consumer) and online shopping (consumer-to-business). The forecast for this year showed NT$143 billion for the online auction business and NT$169 billion for online shopping, the council said on its Web site.
The local Internet economy has defied the global recession, showing increased double-digit growth year-on-year.
Meanwhile, the worldwide online commerce annual growth rate dropped to 7.8 percent last year, compared to 13.2 percent in 2007, and is expected to dip even lower to 6.2 percent this year, before a major pickup next year of 14.6 percent, assuming economic recovery, MIC’s research showed.
Worldwide online commerce has averaged around 10 percent year-on-year growth since 2007.
In dollar values, the global Internet commerce market is forecast to reach US$830.33 billion this year, compared to last year’s US$782.03 billion, and next year is estimated to reach US$951.37 billion, the CEPD said.
As a percentage of the nation’s total retail business, online commerce has increased its market share from 2.6 percent in 2006 to last year’s 3.7 percent, and is projected to reach 4.2 percent this year.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
‘SEISMIC SHIFT’: The researcher forecast there would be about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior year and erasing years of gains The global smartphone market is expected to contract 12.9 percent this year due to the unprecedented memorychip shortage, marking “a crisis like no other,” researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said. The new forecast, a dramatic revision down from earlier estimates, gives the latest accounting of the ongoing memory crunch that is affecting every corner of the electronics industry. The demand for advanced memory to power artificial intelligence (AI) tasks has drained global supply until well into next year and jeopardizes the business model of many smartphone makers. IDC forecast about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior
People stand in a Pokemon store in Tokyo on Thursday. One of the world highest-grossing franchises is celebrated its 30th anniversary yesterday.
Zimbabwe’s ban on raw lithium exports is forcing Chinese miners to rethink their strategy, speeding up plans to process the metal locally instead of shipping it to China’s vast rechargeable battery industry. The country is Africa’s largest lithium producer and has one of the world’s largest reserves, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Zimbabwe already banned the export of lithium ore in 2022 and last year announced it would halt exports of lithium concentrates from January next year. However, on Wednesday it imposed the ban with immediate effect, leaving unclear what the lithium mining sector would do in the
RSS