Online retailer Pinkoi.com yesterday unveiled a project to invest in more than 10 local brands in a bid to capture the nation’s rapidly expanding creative industry.
The investments are to be made via a new fund set up by Cherubic Ventures Co (心元), which has invested in Pinkoi.
The Taipei-based start-up that specializes in the sale of original design goods is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Taiwan, and has expanded its reach across Asia to include Japan, China, Hong Kong and Thailand.
“The creative industry makes up 4.8 percent of Taiwan’s GDP, which accounts for 10 percent of the market in Asia,” Pinkoi CEO and founder Peter Yen (顏君庭) said.
Local brands often struggle to reach a bigger audience, so the company provides them a stage to better show off their designs and to sell internationally, Yen said.
The company in 2013 reported revenue of US$2.5 million, but has not disclosed its revenue since.
“Local governments are investing and encouraging growth in the creative industry as we realize its strong cultural influence and business potential,” said Chen Yue-yi (陳悅宜), director of the Ministry of Culture’s Department of Cultural and Creative Development.
The South Korean creative industry in 2017 recorded an output value of NT$3.3 trillion (US$107 billion), compared with NT$834 billion in Taiwan, Chen said.
The creative industry is now a booming sector in the global economy, Pinkoi said, citing a report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The value of creative goods globally has doubled from US$208 billion in 2002 to US$509 billion in 2015, with an annual compound growth rate of more than 7 percent, the report said.
Asia alone contributed US$228 billion, representing almost half of the overall value of creative goods worldwide — double that of Europe, data showed.
Taiwan, China, Singapore, India and Thailand were among the top 10 best-performing markets in terms of trade, the report said.
“The creative economy has both commercial and cultural worth,” UNCTAD Division on International Trade and Commodities Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton said. “This dual value has led governments worldwide to focus on expanding and developing their creative economies as part of economic diversification strategies and efforts to stimulate prosperity and well-being.”
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his