3D CAD in Korea, Japan, Taiwan

Disclaimer: This document was created in 2000 and has not been revised since.

In the Japanese dominated Asian market, South Korea and Taiwan, the second and third strongest industrial economies, are often judged relative to each other. This ignores fundamental differences in the makeup of the two economies, particularly for an ASP CAD CAM provider. Whereas Taiwan is predominately a net supplier of components, with few large manufacturing assemblers and an incredible number of manufacturing SMEs, South Korea is closer to Japan in being a net consumer of components with several "super-conglomerate" manufacturing assemblers coexisting with a large number of manufacturing SMEs.

The South Korean market offers two distinct and very significant opportunities for an ASP CAD CAM business:

1. (in similar with Taiwan) to promote an ASP CAD CAM service as a solution to enable small component manufacturers to expand their customer base by more efficiently utilizing existing manufacturing capacity, and,
2. to promote an ASP CAD CAM service as a solution to dramatically reduce friction in the SCM functions of large manufacturing conglomerates.

The ability to provide an ASP CAD CAM solution in both a supplier-side Internet ASP form and a manufacturer-side intranet-hosted form is key to success in this market.

A further consideration of this market is its proximity and claimed affinity to the People's Republic of China. Many Internet companies are choosing South Korea as their Asian Internet base and the point from which to launch their "off-shore" assault on the perceived lucrative PROC market.

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