Online retailer Pinkoi.com yesterday unveiled a project to invest in more than 10 local brands in a bid to capture the nation’s rapidly expanding creative industry.
The investments are to be made via a new fund set up by Cherubic Ventures Co (心元), which has invested in Pinkoi.
The Taipei-based start-up that specializes in the sale of original design goods is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Taiwan, and has expanded its reach across Asia to include Japan, China, Hong Kong and Thailand.
“The creative industry makes up 4.8 percent of Taiwan’s GDP, which accounts for 10 percent of the market in Asia,” Pinkoi CEO and founder Peter Yen (顏君庭) said.
Local brands often struggle to reach a bigger audience, so the company provides them a stage to better show off their designs and to sell internationally, Yen said.
The company in 2013 reported revenue of US$2.5 million, but has not disclosed its revenue since.
“Local governments are investing and encouraging growth in the creative industry as we realize its strong cultural influence and business potential,” said Chen Yue-yi (陳悅宜), director of the Ministry of Culture’s Department of Cultural and Creative Development.
The South Korean creative industry in 2017 recorded an output value of NT$3.3 trillion (US$107 billion), compared with NT$834 billion in Taiwan, Chen said.
The creative industry is now a booming sector in the global economy, Pinkoi said, citing a report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The value of creative goods globally has doubled from US$208 billion in 2002 to US$509 billion in 2015, with an annual compound growth rate of more than 7 percent, the report said.
Asia alone contributed US$228 billion, representing almost half of the overall value of creative goods worldwide — double that of Europe, data showed.
Taiwan, China, Singapore, India and Thailand were among the top 10 best-performing markets in terms of trade, the report said.
“The creative economy has both commercial and cultural worth,” UNCTAD Division on International Trade and Commodities Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton said. “This dual value has led governments worldwide to focus on expanding and developing their creative economies as part of economic diversification strategies and efforts to stimulate prosperity and well-being.”
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is weighing whether to add a life insurance business to its portfolio, but would tread cautiously after completing three acquisitions in quick succession, president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said yesterday. “We are carefully considering whether life insurance should play a role in SinoPac’s business map,” Chu told reporters ahead of an earnings conference. “Our priority is to ensure the success of the deals we have already made, even though we are tracking some possible targets.” Local media have reported that Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), which is seeking buyers amid financial strains, has invited three financial