Trends in Taiwanese Startup Ecosystem

Taiwan has stood out to be one of the manufacturing powerhouses of the world, displaying its capabilities in the domain of OEM and ODM (Original Equipment Manufacturer and Original Design Manufacturer) with its sizable share in the world’s production of consumer electronics and semiconductors. Besides that, Taiwan’s efforts towards building a startup friendly nation and understanding the importance of accelerating its entrepreneurs are visible in the collective efforts taken up by the country.

What makes Taiwan a startup attraction?

More than 87.9 percent of citizens of Taiwan’s population of 23.8 million have Internet connectivity. This further leads to figures such as 92 percent of citizens having mobile phones, 67 percent have desktop/notebook and 29 percent have tablets.These figures are evidence of Taiwan citizens’ inclinations towards tech and their intentions in inculcating innovations in their life. The consumer base of Taiwan can act as a pilot point for any startup to test its products in front of a group of people who have always been keen on trying innovations.

Another added advantage of Taiwan is its geographic location which set’s the island nation as a centrally located country in the Asian map. This allows Taiwan to extend its hands towards collaboration with both the western and eastern countries.

The government of Taiwan is making considerable efforts in shaping up the startup ecosystem of its country by executing policies that welcome and harness innovation and startups. Taiwan ranks 15, globally in the terms of ease of doing business and serves as a great welcoming point for any start-up which wants to explore the South Asian market. With its technically skilled labors, low cost operating environment, talent spanning both in the domain of hardware and software, Taiwan shows capabilities of transforming itself into a techno-centric country and an attractive destination to global entrepreneurs.

The Future

Taiwan is making significant efforts to combine its existing manufacturing skills with new-age technological innovations. With this, there is a high chance of Taiwan emerging as a fully self-sufficient ecosystem for the production of products relevant to the technological domain. The presence of fairly a high number of incubators and accelerators such as AppWorks, Microsoft for Startups Taiwan, TC Incubator, Garage+,etc. and active investors such as Black Marble, AppWorks Ventures, CTBC Capital, Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund (Alibaba), and many more show the nations collective effort in shaping the startup ecosystem of the country.

 

However, there are some challenges such as lack of founders who have international experiences and a small labor force as compared to its other competitor nations. Both problems are very much solvable with the effective management of its talent pipeline by the Taiwan government which includes having more courses on applied subjects and also ease of restrictions on the inclusion of foreign employees to the work base. Taiwan’s experience of being a manufacturing powerhouse comes in handy when the country is moving towards exploring the domains of Industry 4.0, AI, IoT, and Big Data.

With a favorable market condition and government support surely Taiwan is on the path of becoming a new start hub in the Asian region.