Richest Taiwanese Person Makes... Shoes

[tango42]

Self-made shoe tycoon extends reign as Taiwan’s richest person

[OysterOmelet]

@izzy

As an OEM it excells at process innovation, how to make the production process better and more efficient, however it is not innovative in the sense that it design the chips themselves - that is done by the likes of AMD and NVIDIA and other fabless chip designers.

That’s a misunderstanding. TSMC has to figure out how to pack more and more transistors on a chip. That requires nanotechnology.

NVIDIA and AMD are just selecting which components go on a processor. That that requires engineering as well, but is much easier.

Also, Taiwan’s Mediatek is the market leader in fabless phone chip design.

To compare TSMC to Foxconn is quite absurd.

[OysterOmelet]

@Flakman

There is no way for some industries needing large factories with many workers to be competitive in Taiwan.

We’re bitching about shoes. SHOES! Like Dave Chappell said, I wanna wear Nikes, I don’t wanna make them.

[ShutUpLegs]

@OysterOmelet

NVIDIA and AMD are just selecting which components to on a processor. That’s that requires engineering as well, but is much we easier.

TSMC (and the vendors they rely on) are exceptionally good and scaling and whole bunch of other things, but design is not simply ‘selecting which components go on a processor’. That’s a ridiculous assessment.

There is arguably far more innovation at the architecture, circuits and systems level, especially going forward. It costs around half a billion US dollars to design and develop a chip for 5 nm production. Why do you think Google, Apple, Facebook and the likes are paying massive salaries and poaching people from the worlds best design houses?

DTCO and now STCO, is critical in continuing improving computational capabilities, relying only on litho based scaling is long gone. The semiconductor industry is far more complex than you seem to understand, and there isn’t a single company that can succeed in isolation.

[OysterOmelet]

@ShutUpLegs

There is arguably far more innovation at the architecture, circuits and systems level,

I.e., selecting which components go on a chip.

@ShutUpLegs

Why do you think Google, Apple, Facebook and the likes are paying massive salaries and poaching people from the worlds best design houses?

They are bringing design in-house. The fact that design is easily brought in-house and manufacturing isn’t speaks volumes.

@ShutUpLegs

there isn’t a single company that can succeed in isolation.

I didn’t say that.

[Gain]

There must be many stealth rich Taiwanese people.

Forbes Billionaires 2022: The Richest People In The World

Top 20 countries/territories by most number of billionaires

1. United States: 735
2. China: 539
3. India: 166
4. Germany: 134
5. Russia: 83
6. Hong Kong: 67
7. Canada: 64
8. Brazil: 62
9. Italy : 52
10. Taiwan: 51
11. United Kingdom: 49
12. Australia: 46
13. Sweden: 45
14. France: 43
15. Switzerland: 41
16. South Korea: 41
17. Japan: 40
18. Indonesia: 30
19. Israel: 30
20. Thailand: 28

Frankly I find it hard to believe that there are more USD billionaires in Taiwan than in Britain. That is just not possible.

[OysterOmelet]

@KHHville

@izzy

Their operations used to be in Taiwan, but instead of growing the local version of Puma or Adidas or Under Armour, they just moved to Vietnam and Myanmar. the money doesnt flow back to Taiwan, the money is probably funneled through many off-shore companies and very little tax is actually paid here. Taiwan as a whole doesnt benefit from this business, only people working / owning that company.
i also dont fully agree with your TSMC example. first of all, we must remember TSMC is only one company, big and important for sure, but only one example. As an OEM it excells at process innovation, how to make the production process better and more efficient, however it is not innovative in the sense that it design the chips themselves - that is done by the likes of AMD and NVIDIA and other fabless chip designers. Similarly, foxconn is great in finding ways to make IPhones cheap, but didnt create a new product of its own.
considering Taiwan’s clout on the semiconductor industry, you would expect the TW eco-system to have more chip design houses, but those arent really here.

There are probably 50-100 listed IC design houses. And those are just the listed ones. Many others in gray market.
Mediatek, Realtek, Novatek, SiS, Sunplus, Elan, to name a few off the top of my head.

[QuaSaShao]

@Gain

Frankly I find it hard to believe that there are more USD billionaires in Taiwan than in Britain. That is just not possible.

Ever heard of anyone buying a one-way ticket out of Taiwan to escape high taxes?

In the ‘70s and '80s many rockers, at least temporarily, encamped to tax havens around the world. David Bowie and Marc Bolan moved to Switzerland; Cat Stevens to Brazil; and Rod Stewart and Bad Company to California. Ringo Starr moved to Monte Carlo in 1975; in an interview, he told Howard Stern he pays "zero taxes."Even the Police’s frontman Sting, who sang, “ I don’t wanna be no tax exile ” in 1978’s “Dead End Job,” left for Ireland two years later.

Today, musicians set up their bands as corporations in tax havens like the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands. “They hire financial advisers to find pathways through the international tax system to escape tax,” says Shaxson. “At the end of the day, it’s usually about finding loopholes.”

But back in the day, many rock stars purchased one-way tickets out of London’s Heathrow airport. Here are the stories behind some of the most famous tax exiles in the rock world.

[izzy]

the difference isnt that big, only 2 people
plus up till recently the uk also had many russian/arab/chinese billionaires there.

[Gain]

@izzy

the difference isnt that big, only 2 people

The difference is enormous. Britain has 3x the population and is a very old capitalist country.

[OysterOmelet]

@KHHville

There are probably 50-100 listed IC design houses. And those are just the listed ones. Many others in gray market.
Mediatek, Realtek, Novatek, SiS, Sunplus, Elan, to name a few off the top of my head.

Four of the top five fabless designers are Taiwanese.

Three of the remaining six have Taiwanese-American CEOs.

Taiwanese Economy About to Surpass South Korean Economy

At present, the global top 10 fabless firms consist of six U.S. (Qualcomm, Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD, Marvell and Xilinx) and four Taiwanese (MediaTek, Novatek, Realtek and Himax).

[crusher]

I have been wearing a Taiwanese brand of shoes called “George” for years. They are pretty ugly but so darn comfortable ; especially their “Air” shoes. The family who owns them are Hakkanese Taiwanese. I met one of the brothers once as my sister in law works there , ironically he was wearing flip flops lol

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Radio Commercials (Eris Pump Up Shoes)

[afterspivak]

@tango42

@tango42 posted this in 2021: When Zhang Congyuan started his sneaker business more than three decades ago, he couldn’t afford a regular factory, so he converted a pig farm next to paddy fields in western Taiwan.

Today, the founder of [Huali Industrial Group] is worth more than $13 billion

This shoe manufacturing thing seems to be a real strength of Taiwan’s manufacturing elite. Consider for example Yunlin-based Fulgent Sun (a company I had never heard of), the subject of this fascinating report from Commonwealth Magazine:

How Fulgent Sun makes Merrell and Vans shoes with...

Guy

[OrangeOrganics]

I’ve really enjoyed the Commonwealth series on Taiwan shoe makers, they are putting out great English content these days.

Biggest is Pou Chen, they are on the Forbes list of 25 biggest apparel companies in the world, above Michael Kors

[tango42]

Seems like another example of Taiwan companies being OEM and not being the brand. Taiwan has done well in multiple industries following this business plan.

[afterspivak]

When it comes to brands, we have . . . LaNew. :sorrow:

Guy

[ChewDawg]

I worked for a tycoon in Taiwan that was frugal—complained that foreigners used too much toilet paper!