October 25, 2005
Led by Taiwan's big global names TrendMicro, Asustek and Acer for the third consecutive year, the value of Taiwan's top ten brands rose 11.5% from
USD 4.13 billion in 2004 to
USD 4.606 billion in 2005, according to a report released in early October by the Board of Foreign Trade, Taiwan External Trade Development Council, Taiwanese biweekly Business Next and global branding consultancy Interbrand.
While it has been suggested that Taiwan's OEM companies have chosen to outsource branding and marketing to foreign firms, there is no doubt that Taiwan's enterprises and government are working hard to develop and boost the value of Taiwanese brands globally. President Chen Shui-bian showed up to personally present the top honors at the announcement ceremony for the report.
TrendMicro boosted its brand value by 14% to
USD 1.077 billion in 2005, while the value of the brands ASUS and Acer climbed 4% and 15% to
USD 882 million and
USD 759 billion respectively. By breaching the
USD 1 billion mark, TrendMicro now qualifies to be considered for the honor of inclusion in US magazine Business Week's ranking of the world's top 100 brands. The magazine's brand evaluation system was used as the basis for Taiwan's brand rankings.
Rounding out the top ten in order are BenQ (up 27% to
USD 354 million), Master Kong (down 14% to
USD 317 million), MAXXIS (down 8% to
USD 264 million), Giant (up 3% to
USD 253 million), SYNNEX (up 20% to
USD 239 million), ZYXEL (up 6% to
USD 236 million) and D-Link (up 2% to
USD 225 million).
BenQ's brand value experienced the highest growth among the top ten over the last year. This is attributed primarily to its acquisition of German electronics firm Siemens, which is itself among the top five mobile phone companies in the world. It is also noteworthy that the combined brand value of Acer and BenQ, both of the Acer Group, at
USD 1.246 billion, surpasses that of number one TrendMicro.
With seven information technology companies among the top ten, this list highlights once again the importance of this sector to the nation's economy. The three non-
IT enterprises are food and beverage maker Master Kong (the leading instant noodle brand in China), tire manufacturer MAXXIS and bicycle maker Giant.
(Central News Agency, Taipei Times)
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