Taiwan Brands - A Phenomenon in Far Formosa

This little island we call home is 390 km long and 140 km wide, is home to approximately 23 million people, continues to be treated as pariah state in world politics and lacks natural resources. Yet, this little Island and its industrious people have managed, somehow, to continuously produce some of the worlds best companies and some top brands.

Last year Business Week listed 14 Taiwanese companies in their Info Tech 100, their ranking of the top tech performers globally. These companies are listed (with their rank) below:

4 Hon Hai Precision Industries.
28 Wistron
29 ASUSTEK Computer
42 Nanya Technology
43 High Tech Computer
53 Siliconware Precision Industries
59 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.
63 Compal Electronic
67 Powerchip Semiconductor
77 Inventec
85 Quanta Computers
92 ACER
96 Advanced Semiconductor Engineering
99 D-Link

To keep Taiwan competitive internationally, The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) has held an annual Taiwan Excellence award over the last five years. Last year ASUS won the award for the first time however Taiwan Branding reported that in 2007 Taiwan had four companies with brand values over US$1 billion. These included ASUSTEK, ACER, HIGH TECH COMPUTER and Trend Micro. Taiwan Branding continued:

"The 20 Taiwan International Brands now has a total value of US $ 8.444 billion, a growth of 33% compare to 2006. This statistic survey not only shows that Taiwan has the top quality in the process and manufacture of the world supply chain, but also recognizes the extraordinary potential of brand values and proves the accomplishment of the project 'Branding Taiwan'."

Interbrand in their 2007 survey of Taiwan's brands said:

"This growth follows a strong year of general growth in Taiwanese companies, reflecting improved financial performance overall."

Interbrand continued saying:

"A key reason for this strong performance is the success of Taiwanese companies in China, the fastest growing country in the world."

Advantech, one of the top Industrial PC companies in the world, was ranked 13th on the list with a brand value of US$234 million or NTD7,785 million.

Yes, Taiwanese companies continue to amaze and may they continue to do so for a long time to come.