Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), Taiwan’s largest IT conglomerate, yesterday held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Taipei International IT Fashion Center (台北資訊園區), its first public project with the government.
Hon Hai, which assembles iPhone and iPads for Apple Inc, is building the center through a build-operate-transfer partnership with the Taipei City Government for NT$3.9 billion (US$135 million) and will operate it for 50 years.
Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) spoke at the ceremony and said the group might explore more public tenders in the future, given its successful bid for the IT Fashion Center.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“We are an export-oriented company. We didn’t bid for public projects in the past as we had to take care of our own well-being,” Gou said, referring to the company’s profitability.
However, Taipei’s vision of utilizing downtown land to set up a tech mall to rival Akihabara, a famous electronics retailing belt in Tokyo, drew its attention.
As Hon Hai does not operate an own-brand business, the group is building channels through which it can sell tech gadgets — a business model that has already proven to be successful in China.
The company will also take advantage of its relationships with brand clients to develop user-friendly digital content to keep abreast of trends in technology, Gou said.
The IT center will be operated by Hon Hai’s affiliate SynTrend Creative Co (三創數位), which will rely on the experience of -Cybermart International Holding Co (賽博數碼).
Hon Hai set up Cybermart in China in 1999 to sell digital products, including computers, handsets and TVs.
There are currently more than 30 Cybermart outlets in several major Chinese cities. The retailer said in Taipei last week that the number would grow to 40 by the end of the year.
It also plans to open at least one outlet in Taiwan by December, with a total of 20 outlets in the long run, it said.
Gou yesterday said the group was planning to list Cybermart in Taipei. Cybermart chairman Steve Chang (張瑞麟) said the retail chain planned to spend 10 billion yuan (US$1.54 billion) over five years on expansion plans. Both declined to give a timeline for the listing.
The center, scheduled for completion in 2013, will have 18 floors (12 upper floors and six -underground parking lots) and is located adjacent to the Guanghua Digital Plaza (光華數位新天地).
Cybermart CEO Scott Chu (朱家義) told the Taipei Times in June last year that the center would be a retail space that would help to develop creativity, as it would offer young entrepreneurs a place to go “wild” and come up with ideas for new tech products.
Cybermart will assist these entrepreneurs in making their ideas take shape and, if feasible, even commercialize the ideas into gadgets to be sold across the globe, Chu said at the time.
Asustek Computer Inc’s (華碩) general sales manager Kevin Lin (林福能) yesterday said the center would offer a platform for branded firms to showcase their products to shoppers.
“With the city government backing the project, we feel confident about working with the mall,” Lin said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS