As an industrial downturn continues to build momentum, some electronics companies in August began to coax production line workers and engineers into taking more days off by using up this year’s quota, or even using next year’s quota in advance.
This is usually the first step corporations take to cut costs in difficult times. This approach allows employers to maintain their necessary workforce so they can jump on opportunities when demand returns. Reducing travel and hiring freezes also help employers cut spending.
“We are resuming cost-saving measures, including limiting business travel and meals as we did during the last financial crisis beginning in 2008,” Delta Electronics chief executive Yancey Hai (海英俊) told investors in August after the world’s top manufacturer of switching power supplies posted its weakest quarterly profits in two years for the second quarter.
Though corporate executives tend to be tough with their personnel policies, they are more than willing to lavish money on developing cutting-edge technologies that they believe will help them become the early beneficiaries of the next upturn.
This explains the rationale behind US search engine giant Google’s latest US$200 million investment announced on Wednesday. Google plans to build three new data centers in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore to tap the fast-growing Internet traffic in China and other Asian nations.
This expansion in data centers indicates strong growth momentum for cloud-based computing services, which provide shared resources, software and information to computers and mobile devices via remote servers, meaning less demand for high performance PCs.
The hardware and software relating to cloud-based computing services are becoming major targets of companies at home and overseas.
And even shareholders are happy: On Thursday, one day after Google’s plan was announced, the stock prices of local cloud-based computing-enabled server suppliers Quanta Computer and Wistron jumped 4.67 percent and 1.08 percent respectively.
Quanta and Wistron are the laptop computer makers investing most aggressively in cloud-based computing technologies and products, and diversifying away from the traditional laptop business as the PC loses its position as the sole device used to access the Internet.
Quanta, the world’s biggest contract notebook computer maker, counts Google, social network company Facebook and online bookstore Amazon as its clients of servers and storage used in data centers that enable cloud-based computing services.
Quanta chairman Barry Lam (林百里) said cloud-based computing products would continue to grow, buckling the downtrend of PC consumption and Quanta would continue investing in this area.
“We foresaw this trend and we’ve invested in it ever since,” Lam told investors in August, adding that this area was supporting the company’s growth now that the laptop computer business was on the wane.
Meanwhile, Compal Electronics saw its share price plunge 2.78 percent on Thursday: The company spent the last year expanding its laptop market share to surpass Quanta, failing to recognize cloud-based computing as a potential business.
To play catch-up, Compal said it would join a local cloud-computing promotion forum, which launches today. Quanta, the nation’s major cable TV operators and Yahoo will also attend the forum to promote the use of cloud-based computing technology to deliver Internet TV programs.
It is too early to tell if those investments will pay off, but no company, even Microsoft, can afford to ignore new technologies.
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
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