The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) yesterday launched an online exhibition for 28 local manufacturers, who were scheduled to display their products at the Hannover Industrial Fair until the fair was canceled for the first time in its 73-year history due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the trend for fairs and exhibitions to go ‘online to offline,’” TAITRA president and chief executive Walter Yeh (葉明水) said at a news conference in Taipei. “Local buyers can visit the fair [in person], while overseas buyers can go online.”
The exhibition is powered by virtual reality (VR) technology, allowing buyers to browse the exhibition and click on items to bring up more detailed information, such as specifications and prices, and send a message to the vendor, Yeh said.
Photo: Lin Jing-hua, Taipei Times
Unlike physical exhibitions, there are no space or time restrictions, he said.
“Of course, we will refresh the exhibition with fresh content, but otherwise it is available 24 hours a day every day for continual access,” he added.
In addition to the online exhibition, TAITRA is working with individual companies to implement “martech” (marketing technology) tools, such as big data analysis, influencer targeting and buyer behavior analysis, Yeh said.
Brian Su (蘇仁茂), chief executive of Su Zin Industry Co (蘇錦工業), which supplies industrial dough mixer parts, said that his company’s Web traffic has more than doubled with TAITRA’s assistance.
“We have also seen more orders from different nations, with customers in Vietnam, India and the United States able to find us,” Su said.
As local manufacturers have been hit hard by the pandemic due to a drop in global demand, TAITRA is providing the VR exhibition and martech support free of charge to participating companies, although it would consider charging in the future, the government-backed trade promotion body said.
TAITRA said it plans to hold 80 online VR exhibitions for local businesses each year.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS