Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋), the nation’s only listed broker, yesterday launched a platform to tap the home decoration and repair business, as well as sales of appliances and furniture.
The new business division came as the broker seeks to grow customers and diversify its sources of income, which has declined significantly due to sluggish home transactions.
“The proposition of services and products, formerly limited to clients having home transactions with the company, is now available to all who place orders via the company’s Web site,” Andy Liu (劉元智), a vice president in charge of the business division, told a media briefing.
Photo provided by Sinyi Realty Inc
Sinyi expects the new operation to generate NT$200 million (US$6.33 million) in revenue this year, a surge of 66 percent from NT$120 million last year, Liu said.
Demand for home repairs and decoration increased sharply in recent years as shown by the number of transactions, soaring from 2,000 three years ago to 12,000 last year, Liu said.
The new operation might boost cross-selling benefits for the real-estate brokerage and agency, as customers have expressed a need for such services and products, he said.
Sinyi has entered an alliance with 400 partners, including home-improvement outlets B&Q (特力屋), Hola Home Furnishings Co (特力和樂), home appliance retailers, home movers, house cleaners, and interior designers and retailers.
Sinyi is to charge retailers and service providers that gain business orders from the platform, Liu said, without elaborating on fee amounts.
It is the first time a real-estate broker has introduced such a one-stop platform, while local peers are limited to the role of advertisers on other Web sites, Liu said.
Sinyi’s cumulative revenue was NT$3.97 billion for the first six months, a 14.92 percent decrease from the same period last year.
Sinyi shares ended down 0.52 percent at NT28.65 yesterday. They have slumped 21.72 percent so far this year, weaker than the TAIEX’s 7.79 percent retreat, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
COLLABORATION: The operations center shows the close partnership between Taiwan and Japan in the field of semiconductors, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Tokyo Electron Ltd, Asia’s biggest semiconductor equipment supplier, yesterday launched a NT$2 billion (US$61.5 million) operations center in Tainan as it aims to expand capacity and meet growing demand. Its new Taiwan Operations Center is expected to help customers release their products faster, boost production efficiency and shorten equipment repair time in a cost-effective way, the company said. The center is about a five-minute drive from the factories of its major customers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) advanced 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer fabs. The operations center would have about 1,000 employees when it is fully utilized, the company
RSS