The five-day Computex Taipei wrapped up yesterday, attracting more than 120,000 visitors around the world with its dazzling display of the latest products and technologies and generating about US$23 billion in business, up 15 percent from last year, organizers said.
Visitor numbers grew 20 percent from a year ago, according to data provided by Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA). They included 35,017 international buyers from 216 countries and areas, up from 184 last year, with the top five being the US, Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea, the figures showed.
NEW PARTICIPANTS
“The biggest difference in this year’s trade show was that it attracted companies from countries we didn’t expect to come,” said Jeremy Horng (洪銘欽), deputy executive director of TAITRA’s exhibition department.
“This indicates that the impact of Computex Taipei has expanded across the world,” Horng said, adding that the eurozone debt crisis didn’t have much on an impact on the number of European companies attending the show.
The number of exhibitors from emerging countries such as Malaysia, Russia, India and Brazil increased significantly this year, he said.
TAITRA data showed that the number of participating companies from Russia and Vietnam increased by more than 50 percent this year, while Malaysian exhibitors rose nearly 30 percent.
A total of 2,014 one-on-one procurement match-making meetings took place on the first two days of the computer trade show, generating more than US$230 million in business, compared with the US$100 million generated last year, TAITRA said.
Procurements by companies from emerging economies, including Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, India, Argentina and Chile totaled US$38.8 million.
POPULAR PRODUCTS
Organizers said that among the products that drew the most interest from representatives attending the procurement match-making meetings were e-readers, 3D monitors, notebooks, storage-related products and servers.
Entering the tablet PC market, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) launched its Eee Pad, which combines a computer, a multimedia player and an e-book.
Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s top brand notebook maker, unveiled its LumiRead e-reader and has been working with publishers such as US-based Barnes & Noble, Libri in Germany and FangZheng in China to provide e-books in English, German and Chinese.
However, organizers voiced concern that about 150 companies were not able to participate this year because of limited space at the show, adding that World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 2 might be open to exhibitors next year, in addition to the four venues used this year.
“If all five exhibition halls are in use next year, the number of booths will increase by about 350,” Horng said, adding that Nangang Exhibition Hall 2 is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2012, which will open up an additional 2,500 booths.
Looking ahead, organizers said that Computex Taipei would continue to secure its status as the world’s second-largest and Asia’s largest information and communications technology trade show.
“It is still hard to outflank CeBIT Germany in the near future because of space restrictions,” Horng said, noting that the Germany exhibition offers about 450,000m² in space, which is 4.5 times larger than that in Taiwan.
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