I agree, but a lot have tried here badly and spent a lot of money in doing it. Not that it cant be done, but I dont think will be from any of the big companies at any time soon. Maybe startups getting invested from Taiwanese companies.
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The government should really be pushing harder on this. The startup environment here really lags not just the West but most of Asia.
These are all nebulous ideas. The government does push on the startup stuff, they have opened umpteen accelerators and funds and taken people to CES and blah blah blah. Lots of people making a pretty penny off the fact that Taiwan has a lot of engineering talent but not many successful startups.
I think its getting better, but you need wholesale cultural changes. Its not something you can just click your finger and create. Too many people thinking can just replicate Silicon Valley culture in Taiwan.
Factually:
- Taiwan has a lot of engineering Talent
- Taiwan has a lot strong b2b companies
- Taiwan has pretty decent research institutions
- Taiwanese are well educated and many have studied abroad at good universities
- Taiwanese do well when they go abroad. So many Taiwanese leading in Shanghai, San Francisco etc And also leading creatively
- Taiwan has a lot of money. It does and Taiwanese have a lot of money
And so on and so on. Take Taiwanese out of Taiwan, and they kickass, but there is something about the working culture here that just sucks the soul out of people. Eventually it will click in Taiwan, but not overnight.
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Taiwan was originally a nation of rice farmers. Things can change.
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I agree
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Taiwanese have to get from the 'you waiguoren , we Taiwanese ’ mindset. That really holds them back I think.
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Yeah Silicon Valley hasn’t been replicated and it’s not going to happen here. And certainly not “overnight.”
I never looked more closely at the accelerators and funds here because they looked weak compared to what you can find even in SE Asia.
I do think it would behoove Taiwan to look at ways it can encourage investment and new business formation, including from foreign entrepreneurs. Before the government even spent a cent on investment-related initiatives, they’d be wise to look at tax and immigration policy.
This is what they have done with the entrepreneurship visas and gold card.
Foreign investment is tough in Taiwan though, because of laws set up to block Chinese money getting into the economy
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The entrepreneur visa is a joke and the Gold Card doesn’t directly address new business formation. It’s great for tech workers who can work remotely for overseas companies but does virtually nothing to incentivize foreigners to apply their knowledge and resources to start businesses here.
Things are getting better as well. Nobody would have thought a Gogoro was possible a decade ago
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I sort of disagree… the first thing I really noticed and appreciated about Taiwan is how creative people could be. I first came to Taiwan in 2000 and was in the semi biz (support engineer) and sort of marveled at how those TSMC/UMC engineers could come up with creative solutions/challenges.
Seems like everyone here wants to be an entrepreneur, nobody wants to work for someone else. I think the whole risk aversion perception is from those Taiwanese unlucky enough to be working for someone else and is afraid of pissing off the boss.
But then, I guess that many things could’ve changed in the past 20 years as I don’t really meet that many “new” people anymore (retired)
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China has a lot of unicorns and entrepreneurship, but they have access to a lot of capital and a huge market. If Taiwanese young people had more access to capital, then they would set up businesses.
TSMC is amazing but the creativity that’s driving massive wealth creation today is centered on the consumer (and consumerization of business). Much of this is software, and increasingly amazing software-hardware integration. Peloton is a good example of the latter.
Taiwan’s software prowess far lags its hardware prowess unfortunately and there’s a huge difference between being an innovative component supplier and an innovative consumer technology company.
People here don’t want to work for other people but they also don’t want to take risks. Having a stable job is highly valued, and people get a major boost if they work for a company with a good reputation. If you’re a young man and want to get married and start a family, there’s immense pressure to get a good job so you can buy a house (if your parents don’t have one to give you) and provide a stable life to your family.
Everything is about stability and trying to start a high growth tech business jeopardizes that.
Also, I recall reading somewhere that, according to a survey, young Taiwanese who would like to work for themselves dream most of starting cafes/restaurants/bars or becoming YouTubers.
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It’s a lot easier in America to work for a start up when the start up is paying you megabucks and there’s always another startup or established company you can move onto if and when it fails. If it does succeed that startup could give you millions in stock , even to the lower ranks.
Not many people really want to work for ‘the man’ and let’s face it working on electronics components or whatever is very hard working , long hours, stressful etc. The story is that young people don’t want to deal with stress or are less resilient to stress. Not sure if true or not but lots of anecdotes out there.
Certainly many Taiwanese people like to avoid potential for conflict or dealing with novel situations or people (e.g. me 
).
Entrepreneurship in Taiwan is an uphill battle as well, Taiwanese investors are quite thrifty and expect quick returns.
But Taiwan has a lot of innovation and cool products. Some of what is here sounds a bit like what I hear from old rich people. Look at Zec Zec, the Taiwan crowdfunding platform, loads of cool, well designed products.
Actually, would say Taiwan is one of the hotspots for this type of product design. Way better than China. I feel in general things are moving in the right direction here, but will just take time.
Well you got companies who are extremely thrifty and expects a LOT for the salary they pay you. So for every 1000nt raise they give you they expect 5000nt out of you. It’s a losing proposition to work for anyone in Taiwan.
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that’s due to a decision the KMT made decades ago to keep anyone from getting large so they don’t become a political competitor.
Korea followed the Japanese model with big conglomerates. The Korean government gave them huge loans at negative real interest rates.
Interesting… I hadn’t thought of it that way
I guess in the end, it comes down to random gov policy/strategy. If I recall correctly, the KMT gov did support TSMC in the early days right?
This is the genus of every issue i think. Working for Taiwanese companies is shit. People are not rewarded for giving extra, so people just do the bare minimum. Both sides of the equation trying to squeeze each other. Its not a working culture that fosters innovation
Most would prefer to be their own boss opening a coffee shop that go through that shit.
Taiwan investors are conservative, so doing anything big scale is touch here.
I dont buy into Taiwanese young people are complacent stuff I hear from the oldies. Loads of Taiwanese go abroad to prove themselves and that takes some guts to do. In the right system, Taiwanese excel.
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