Moving into the Next Ten Years: “Talent” is the Key to Taiwan’s Startup Ecosystem Development
On the 10th Anniversary Forum of AAMA, Shien-Quey Kao, Deputy Minister of the National Development Council (NDC), Lee-Feng Chien, former Managing Director of Google Taiwan and current Board Member of iKala, Sega Cheng, Co-Founder of iKala, and Wayne Huang, Co-Founder of XREX gathered for a panel on “Planning the Next Ten Years of Taiwan’s Startup Ecosystem.”
Moving into the next ten years: “talent” is the key
All four speakers touched upon the importance of “talent.” Taiwan has always been known for its high quality and affordable engineering talents, attracting enterprises from all over the world to hire remote talents from Taiwan. Combined with the effects of Covid-19 and the decreasing birth rate, like many other countries, this has led to a talent shortage within Taiwan. Kao, Deputy Minister of the NDC, stated that in order to resolve such an issue and improve Taiwan’s overall startup atmosphere, startups must go global (outbound) and attract overseas talents into Taiwan (inbound).
Chien, former Managing Director of Google Taiwan and current Board Member of iKala, wittily compared the development of Taiwan’s startup ecosystem with ‘baseball leagues.’ “Players headed to the Major League should be thankful for the environment upfront, but will need to rely more on personal efforts after; meaning if a player (a startup) would like to play in the Major League (head to the international market), thank the government for taking care of you initially, but then will have to leave this island to grow and expand. As of now, Taiwan is heading to the Major League, but is yet to become an all-star player,” he said.
“As of now, Taiwan is heading to the Major League, but is yet to become an all-star player” — Chien, former Managing Director of Google Taiwan and current Board Member of iKala
On top of this, Chien offered a solution to the decreasing birth rate: 100x100, “we must make the assumption that there won’t be any more newborns. If we can still survive without newborns — that is organic growth, because the population is still increasing all over the world,” he continued, “if each and every startup can recruit 100 overseas talents, the startup ecosystem will be able to makeup for the decreasing birth rate.”
“iKala is comparatively a ‘lao chuang’ (startup at a later stage). We’ve already faced difficulties going into the later half of our development,” said Sega, Co-Founder of iKala, “there are simply not enough international talents with experience operating global brands. The capital has been linked and early funds filled, but the lack of talents for trending industries, the relative lower pay, and fewer births in Taiwan have forced many Taiwan startups to go B2B, but then the market size is not big enough. Startups must find their way out.”
Wayne Huang, Co-Founder of XREX further adds, “for the next ten years, Taiwan should treat startups as a means to an end, not an end in itself. And for the next ten years, Taiwan should think about how to nurture the next generation of ‘hu guo shen shan’ (the magic mountain that protects the nation). We hope that Taiwan will be able to look back in ten years’ time and see the results in the accumulation of economic growth and the magic mountains it has bred.”
“Taiwan should treat startups as a means to an end, not an end in itself” — Wayne Huang, Co-Founder of XREX
In response to the discussion on talent, Kao said, “the Taiwanese government is actively trying to cultivate and retain digital talents through policies such as the implementation of semiconductor academies and the granting of visas to international students. We hope that these international students will choose to stay in Taiwan for employment upon graduation.”
