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(Last updated: 21 Nov 2011)
Trends and opportunities
The market
In 2010, 85.7 per cent of households in Taiwan owned computers, 78.7 per cent of households had Internet access (including Internet access equipment and connections to the Internet), 75 per cent of households had broadband access and 95 per cent of online households were using broadband connections.
Taiwan market growth can be attributed to several factors:
- The aggressive deployment of global logistical support systems by Taiwan firms
- The growing importance and awareness of e-commerce
- The heightened use of information technology, particularly in the areas of web-based applications and electronic commerce
- Recognition of the attributes of the B2B EC business model and its capabilities.
- The Taiwan Government’s promotional plans and strategies
- The global logistics and supply chain management system requirements of foreign business partners of Taiwan hi-tech manufacturers
- The necessity of appropriate information systems to manage migration of various industries to mainland China
Hardware
Greater focus is expected in information/intelligent appliance products and wireless/WAN application products in the future as Taiwan strives to keep abreast of changes to requirements in ICT hardware.
Over the past few years, Dell, Microsoft and Sony have all announced the establishment of R&D centres in Taiwan and currently 20 of the world’s top ICT OEMs operate International Procurement Offices in Taiwan. Significant orders have been placed by OEMs for notebooks and a wide range of peripherals including mobile phones, wireless access cards and scanners.
Software
In 2010, the Taiwanese software market grew by 7.1 per cent to reach a value of US$4 billion. It’s forecast to have a value of US$4.9 billion by 2013, an increase of 81.2 per cent since 2008. Taiwan accounts for 3.3 per cent of the Asia-Pacific software market’s value.
The Taiwanese Government’s strong push and focus on e-commerce development combined with the online integrated supply chain management system between major OEMs and Taiwanese hardware manufacturers, which has now been extended to include full vertical integration of smaller component and systems suppliers to Taiwanese OEMs, is expected to fuel the demand. Add to this the need for Taiwanese manufacturers in China to have efficient management systems in place and there are further factors, which are expected to accelerate growth.
In general, output is generated by three main software categories:
- Industry-specific computer software
- Key software tools and components
- Embedded software
Over the last two years, Taiwan has seen an accelerated development of locally developed software by Taiwanese companies, particularly in the multimedia sectors. Taiwanese games companies are now the biggest players in the Greater China region with increased local development in global logistics where locally developed software has better mirrored internal management systems and practices.
In 2009, Taiwan’s digital content production industry grew at an annual rate of 15 per cent to reach approximately A$14 billion. Gaming, digital animation and e-learning are expected to be the major drivers of the industry. Opportunities exist for Australian companies to provide and create digital content with and/or for broadcasters, mobile and wireless platforms, Internet platforms and multimedia software firms. In additional to cooperative arrangements, there are opportunities in human resource development.
Opportunities
It is estimated that considerable opportunities of about A$5.6 billion will be generated from the projects listed above. Opportunities for Australian businesses exist in the relevant areas, especially in the software, digital content providing, databases, and relevant service areas.
Capturing these opportunities will require strong links with local players in the market and there is already intense competition from established local and global vendors for major business opportunities in this national strategy.
The best opportunities in Taiwan's ICT industry for Australian exporters are:
- Innovative software applications, particularly in games, and management application software
- E-commerce and digital content for e-commerce, e-security, e-government and e-learning
- Mobile games, content and applications
- Intelligent transport systems
- E-learning projects in Third World countries – Taiwan is keen to work with Australian software players as a consortium to bid for international projects sponsored by the UN or other international banking organisations
(Source: Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. Market Intelligent Centre of Institute for Information Industry)
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