CAD software business in Japan, Korea, Taiwan

Disclaimer: This section was created in 2000 and has only been slightly updated in 2006.

Mapping the 3D CAD CAM software and e-manufacturing related areas of the Asian Internet allowed us to answer three basic questions:

1. "Was there anybody there?" (i.e. did a sufficient critical-mass of potential customers exist?),
2. "Could it be done?" (i.e. was there a sufficiently evolved infrastructure to reach/service the potential customers?), and,
3. "What was the state of play?" (i.e. were there competition?).

There were two fundamental factors to be determined prior to being able to answer those questions:

1. decide who to look for, and,
2. decide what to look for.

a. Who to look for?

We were looking for contacts: as many influential contacts in the 3D CAD software and e-manufacturing market as we could find, classify and prioritize. There were six distinct classes of Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean Internet users in the e-manufacturing domain that we considered in this mapping process:

1. Passive "information seekers"; both private and corporate, who log on to Web sites and online communities looking for an on-line service/product or just for information.
2. Product/service vendors and manufacturers; who use the Internet as an additional/alternative advertising/sales channel.
3. Influential (pro-active) users, who tend to hold strong opinions in their area of expertise, often dominate discussion groups/forums and may even have personal web sites related to their interest areas.
4. Media; both pure online and the online offshoots of offline publishers.
5. "Meta-market" makers and exchanges, using the Internet to reduce/remove friction in supply-chain/customer interactions.
6. Infrastructure agents; ISPs, hosting companies.

For the purposes of developing the business strategy, these six classes were condensed into four key groups determining the probable degree of success of eCADNow in each of the Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean markets:

1. Potential customers, probably classes 1 and 2 above.
2. Potential allies/champions/influencers, probably classes 3 and 4 above.
3. Potential partners, probably classes 5 and 6 above.
4. Potential/actual competitors, possibly classes 2 and 5 above.

b. What to look for?

There were three key types of data that we looked for in each of the Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean markets:

• Data to determine the level of (then) present e-manufacturing activity,
• Data to determine the potential demand for e-manufacturing.
• Data to identify, classify and prioritize the contacts in each group determined in "Who to look for?",

There were six areas of the Internet that we mapped to provide the required data:

1. Web sites
2. Online communities
3. Online services
4. Newsgroups
5. Mailing lists
6. Web forums (discussion groups)

Identifying the presence of these six areas related to e-manufacturing created the initial high-level map for each of the Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean markets. The high-level map gave a good indication of the level of demand/interest in e-manufacturing in Japan, Taiwan and Korea and allowed us to prioritize each territory for the more time-consuming activity of gathering the data on individual contacts.

To gather Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean contact data, we considered where we were most likely to find each of the classes of user. By considering each of the six classes individually, we expected their presence to be apparent as follows:

• Passive "information seekers"; generally do not have Web sites but their relative concentration in any region will be found through their participation in areas 2 - 6.
• Product/service vendors and manufacturers; should have Web sites and may also host Web forums so should be found through areas 1 and 6.
• Influential (pro-active) users; may have Web sites and can anyway be expected to be active in online communities, newsgroups, mailing lists and Web forums and should be found through areas 2, 4, 5 and 6.
• Media, should have Web sites and may also host Web forums so should be found through areas 1 and 6.
• "Meta-market" makers and exchanges; will have Web sites and may also host Web forums so should be found through areas 1 and 6.
• Infrastructure agents; will have Web sites, will generally provide online services and may also host Web forums so should be found through areas 1, 3 and 6.

The initial objective was to identify as many relevant contact names, e-mail addresses and URLs as possible for members of each of these groups related to CAD software, computer aided design and e-manufacturing in each of the Asian regions.

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