Chinese e-commerce Web site Taobao (淘寶) hit another setback in Taiwan after the Investment Commission on Wednesday rejected Taobao International Exhibition Industry Alliance Ltd’s (淘寶國際) NT$30 million (US$1.02 million) investment plan, saying that it breached laws restricting Chinese companies from operating advertising businesses.
The company applied to create a Taiwanese subsidiary to offer Taobao and TMall (天貓) trading platforms to local consumers by forming two firms in Taiwan.
These e-commerce companies would sell advertising as a part of their business model, which is against regulations, commission spokesman Su Chi-yen (蘇琪彥) said by telephone yesterday.
“E-commerce companies usually charge retailers more money to be featured more prominently on their site,” Su said. “This is a form of advertising.”
The commission also said it is concerned about the privacy of Taiwanese, as Taobao plans to store personal information on Chinese servers, but this was not the primary reason for rejecting Taobao this time, Su said.
This is not the first time Taobao has tried to expand its presence in Taiwan. It first applied to invest through a Hong Kong parent company set up in 2013.
The commission in 2015 determined that the investment was actually from China, not from Hong Kong, and ordered the firm to divest.
Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴集團), Taobao’s parent, has licensed the Taobao brand to an English company, Claddagh Venture Investment Ltd, which operates Taobao Taiwan (淘寶台灣) through a Taiwanese subsidiary of Claddagh Venture.
The commission said it is looking into whether Claddagh Venture is a front for Chinese investors.
“There are fewer restrictions on foreign investments that do not originate in China, that is why Claddagh’s investment did not have to come before the Investment Commission” Su said. “But if we find that it is actually Chinese money that funded Taiwan Taobao, then it will have to be scrutinized accordingly.”
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
RSS