3D CAD in Taiwan, Japan, Korea

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

viii. Manufacturing B2B Exchanges

In keeping with its trading nation status, Taiwan's Internet is awash with B2B exchanges, some specialize in specific industry areas while others (such as the largest exchange CETRA) more than 37,000 companies. The Taiwan Online affiliate of Taiwan Yellow Pages is typical of many well-designed sites. There are an amazing number of "Taiwan Online", "Products Online" "Manufacturers Online" sites in Taiwan: it seems that (very unlike Japan) in the Taiwanese Internet market being the first player definitely does not mean being the only player.

ix. E-Aware Manufacturers

Whereas many Taiwanese manufacturers seem to be e-aware, most do not have self-hosted sites but rely upon virtual hosted Web pages at B2B exchanges or industry association sites. Many mold and die companies have Web pages hosted by the Mold.Net site. Pyramids Technology has one of the more advanced self hosted sites offering "remote job monitoring" whereas Yue Ho Glass has a "look at our CAD CAM facility" site typical of many Taiwanese manufacturers' sites.

x. Manufacturing & CAD CAM-CAE Related Online News

Taiwan seems to suffer a general shortage of online CAD CAM content: only one Taiwanese CAD CAM magazine Taiwan Machine Sources has a Web site. The Japanese NikkeiBP (Digital Engineering etc.) has the AsiaBizTech site that includes general Asian manufacturing and Internet technology coverage, as does CNET Singapore to a more limited extent.

xi. Portals

There are numerous MSN-type portals on the Taiwanese Internet, many of whom specialize in Chinese content and all of whom want to become the #1 in both the Taiwan and China markets. Only started in August 1997 the current #1 portal with 1.8 million registered users and 15 million page views per day is Kimo.com (*2004 - since acquired by Yahoo!) rated by AC Nielsen NetWatch Report as the "1^st page to be visited" and the "#1 page to be visited". The #2 site is Yam.com. The #3 portal is of course.Yahoo!

xii. Academic & Research Institutes

Taiwan has one of the highest university graduation rates in the world and this is evidenced by the plethora of universities and university sites on the Taiwanese Internet. Those most likely to be of interest during the ASP-CAD market entry activities are the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National Taiwan University with a very strong Internet and 3D research focus and the National Cheng Kung University which hosts a key "branch center of TANet", the broadband Taiwan Academic Net, for the Ministry of Education.

xiii. Trade Shows and Conferences

Taiwan has a large number of trade shows primarily intended to aid as introductory exchanges for foreign buyers and domestic producers. The annual Computex show in early June draws more than 100,000 visitors and is the main show for the Taiwan computer hardware/software industry. The Taipei Computer Applications Show in late July draws 70,000 visitors, mostly domestic, to view a wide range of software and systems. Internet World - Taiwan is held in mid November.

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