Smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday announced Benjamin Ho (何永生) would replace John Wang (王景弘) as chief marketing officer in January.
The key personnel change comes as the world’s No. 5 smartphone brand has recently ended a patent fight with Apple Inc, but still faces intensified competition from Apple and Samsung Electronics Co.
HTC’s stock price rose 3.02 percent to close at NT$256 in Taipei trading, after local media reported earlier in the day that Ho would leave Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) to join HTC.
So far this year, the stock has plunged 48.49 percent, according to Taiwan Stock Exchange data.
At HTC, Ho, a Singaporean, will be responsible for worldwide marketing and branding, and his first assignment will be to lead a project, dubbed “Marketing 2.0,” to refocus the company’s efforts around marketing and mass-market brand outreach, while Jason Mackenzie, currently president of global sales and marketing, will focus on global sales strategy, the company said.
On Oct. 26, HTC told an investors’ conference that it planned to continue marketing investment in a bid to increase its brand awareness in developed and emerging countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, after revenue declined for a second consecutive quarter to NT$70.2 billion (US$2.41 billion) in the third quarter, which was the lowest in 11 quarters.
“We welcome Benjamin to HTC and look forward to integrating the global marketing capabilities he brings to the company,” HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou (周永明) said in a statement.
Ho is currently vice president of business strategy and marketing at Far EasTone, the statement said.
He previously served as vice president and chief marketing officer at Motorola Asia Pacific Ltd for eight years, as well as a working as a director at BBDO Greater China, Dentsu and Young and Rubicam International, the statement said.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
RSS