Amid a new teaching landscape shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, e-book and technology providers are optimistic about the potential of Taiwan’s independent education market.
The boom in video conferencing and remote education has brought domestic hardware manufacturers along for the ride, while software makers such as CyberLink have developed new features in response to surging demand for new solutions.
Students and teachers in most countries in East and Southeast Asia have returned to physical classrooms, but distance education remains crucial in many other markets, said Chung Ying-ting (鐘映庭), an industry analyst at the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute.
Photo: Chou Hsiang-yun, Taipei Times
Hybrid classrooms, in which some students are physically present and others are attending virtually, have become the “new normal,” and the trend would continue to develop as the school year progresses, she said.
To keep distance education running smoothly, nations are enacting policies and exploring resources, particularly hardware, Chung said.
Some nations have hastened plans already in place, she said, citing Japan, which expedited its goal of ensuring computer access for every student from 2024 to this year.
In Taiwan, Google searches for “online learning” reached a peak in March to May, when people were most concerned with the prospect of a more severe COVID-19 outbreak, contributing to a growth in traffic and revenue for online learning platform providers, Chung said.
Many people during this time began paying more attention to distance learning and explored new learning methods, potentially forming a basis for hybrid education models, she added.
The National Development Council in September adjusted the budget for the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, raising the proportion allocated to digital infrastructure from 5 to 16 percent, Chung said.
The third phase of the program is to set aside NT$1.5 billion (US$52.1 million) for digital education, while NT$1.1 billion is to go toward making Taiwan a bilingual nation by 2030, she said, adding that these plans might also accelerate the development of “smart” education.
The pandemic has also presented new opportunities within the “stay-at-home” economy, particularly for digital e-book readers.
Julian Chou (周立涵), country manager for Taiwan and Hong Kong of Rakuten Kobo, a Japanese e-book company, said that the the firm’s number of active users in Taiwan has doubled since the pandemic began, while sales of its e-books and e-readers have increased.
E-books are not replacing or affecting physical book sales, but increase production value for many booksellers, Chou said.
The Kobo online store offers more than 6 million titles, 110,000 of them Chinese, Chou said, adding that the firm began selling in Hong Kong last year.
Due to the pandemic, partnerships with Chinese-language publishers from other countries have been put on hold, he said.
Since Taiwan is a cultural powerhouse in the region, Rakuten Kobo is to make the nation its headquarters for promoting titles across the Chinese-speaking world, he added.
There is a high correlation between time spent reading and sales growth, said Ho Wan-fang (何宛芳), cofounder and marketing director of Readmoo, a local e-book company.
In the entirety of last year, users of Readmoo’s mooInk spent a combined 54 million minutes reading, a figure already shadowed by the 64 million minutes spent reading in the first three quarters of this year, she said.
Extrapolating from revenue growth estimates, readers are this year expected to spend more than 85 million minutes using their e-readers, Ho said, adding that the growth trend has been consistent over the past few years.
Overseas users have also grown rapidly, rising from 10 to 12 percent of all daily users before the pandemic began to a stable 30 percent now, she said.
Most of the company’s clients are in Taiwan and Hong Kong, followed by the US, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore, she added.
Taiwan Digital Publishing Forum secretary-general Lin Pai-tsun (林柏村) said that his group saw a slightly different trend emerge at the beginning of the pandemic.
In the months up to September, domestic e-book platforms have seen an average annual growth rate of 30 to 40 percent, only a small increase from past years, Lin said.
However, firms that have performed well have seen up to 50 percent growth, while overseas markets have grown about 30 percent, doubling from previous years, he added.
Public libraries have this year also spent about 30 percent more on e-books amid heightened demand, especially in the six major municipalities, Lin added.
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
RSS