The annual Computex always brings bumper revenues for five-star hotels and restaurants in the area, and this year, the world's tallest building has also jumped in to take a share.
Although it has no hotel rooms to meet the surging demand for accommodation from overseas buyers, the Taipei 101 skyscraper is renting out its two large ballrooms to serve as exhibitors' VIP lounges.
"Usually companies would have to use hotel rooms for their meeting purposes, where the beds have to be moved away," said Michael Liu (劉家豪), assistant vice president of Taipei Financial Center Corp (台北金融大樓公司), which owns the building, in a telephone interview yesterday.
The building is located close to the three exhibition halls of the Taipei World Trade Center and the Taipei International Convention Center, where the show is held.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Taiwan's biggest electronic components maker, has rented one of the ballrooms on the fifth floor of the building's adjacent Taipei 101 Mall during the five-day exhibition.
The 140 ping (460m2) banquet room reportedly has a daily rental fee of NT$240,000 (US$7,700).
Taipei 101 is also cooperating with the Taipei Computer Association (
"We've received a strong response for these services. Next year, we'll arrange more preferential packages, strengthen hardware facilities and design a wide array of coupons to integrate dining and shopping in the mall," he said.
Faced with this new competitor, five-star hotels say they are not worried about losing business. Demand always exceeds supply when major exhibitions are held in the area, they said.
According to the Taiwan External Trade and Development Council (TAITRA,
The Grand Hyatt Taipei, the only hotel situated right next to the show venue, said its rooms were fully booked about four months before Computex started.
The average rate for the hotel's rooms surges to NT$14,000 during this period, compared with NT$5,000 to NT$9,000 at normal times, said Tina Chen (陳甦妤), public relations manager at the Grand Hyatt.
"Some customers have booked rooms for next year's Computex," she said.
To better serve their customers, major hotels outside the area offer free shuttle-bus services to and from the exhibition halls every day during the expo.
Far Eastern Plaza Hotel reported an average room rate of over NT$10,000 per night.
The Grand Formosa Regent Taipei, despite being far from the district, also saw average room rates rise to NT$9,000, bringing in more than NT$3 million a day.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) halted shipments to a customer this month after its semiconductors were sent to China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為), potentially breaching US sanctions, a government official said. The US slapped sanctions on Huawei in 2019, and expanded them the following year, over fears its technology could be used for Beijing’s espionage operations. The restrictions prevent TSMC from selling semiconductors to Huawei. However, TSMC discovered on Oct. 11 that chips made for a “specific customer” had ended up with the Chinese company, a Taiwanese official with knowledge of the incident said on the condition of anonymity. TSMC “immediately activated
US SANCTIONS: The Taiwan tech giant has ended all shipments to China-based Sophgo Technologies after one of their chips was discovered in a Huawei phone Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) suspended shipments to China-based chip designer Sophgo Technologies Ltd (算能科技) after a chip it made was found on a Huawei Technologies Co (華為) artificial intelligence (AI) processor, according to two people familiar with the matter. Sophgo had ordered chips from TSMC that matched the one found on Huawei’s Ascend 910B, the people said. Huawei is restricted from buying the technology to protect US national security. Reuters could not determine how the chip ended up on the Huawei product. Sophgo said in a statement on its Web site yesterday that it was in compliance with all laws
TECH TITANS: Nvidia briefly overtook Apple again on Friday after becoming the world’s largest company for a short period in June, as Microsoft fell to third place Nvidia Corp dethroned Apple Inc as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched US$3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s US$3.52 trillion, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8 percent, with a market value of US$3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4 percent, valuing the iPhone maker at US$3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft Corp and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been
Shares of Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) surged more than 53 percent on its debut on the Taiwan stock exchange yesterday. Starlux shares closed up 53.75 percent at NT$30.75 from its initial public offering price of NT$20 after retreating in late trading from a 60 percent rise. China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) rose 0.90 percent to close at NT$22.35, while EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) gained 0.40 percent to close at NT$37.70. In Taiwan, a newly listed stock is allowed to go beyond the 10 percent maximum increase or decline in its first five trading sessions. At the listing ceremony, Starlux chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) said
RSS