Social Networking Heavyweights Plan to Step up Ad Sales in Taiwan

Many social network providers are planning to step up advertising sales in Taiwan in light of the impressive purchasing power of the island's consumers and their generally positive view of business services provided by foreign companies.

Head of Facebook Inc.'s Greater China operations, Jayne Leung, says in addition to Facebook's plan to step up advertising sales in Taiwan, the company's subsidiary, Instagram, is also considering carrying  advertising in Taiwan. Instagram is the well-known online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking app  that enables users to take pictures and video to share on a variety of social networking platforms. So far Instagram has been available only in Australia and Japan in the Asian market.

Leung points out that Facebook's business in Taiwan has steadily grown, with the number of active FB users having grown to 16 million and 92 percent of whom using FB on their mobile devices.

She adds that Facebook's Taiwan business mainly focuses on educating and helping brand-name advertisers understand and reap the benefits of the Facebook platform, strengthening its advertising business, and helping local app developers to take advantage of the Facebook platform.

Leung says this year the company will open an office in Taipei to directly handle its advertising business on the island, which makes unnecessary to bring salespeople to the company's Taiwan headquarters from its Greater China headquarters.

She adds that Facebook recognizes the potential and opportunities that Taiwan presents and is looking forward to working closely with Taiwan businesses, partners and the government to help local businesses grow.

Also the company will promote its “Blueprint” online advertising certification in Taiwan this year. The certification tool covers 34 classes of products and services dedicated to Facebook for brands and marketers to set themselves apart from others as well as help them with their respective campaigns.

Facebook executives for product development and marketing will attend the FBStart meeting held in Taipei in early August to exchange notes with with local mobile-app developers. FBStart is a program that offers a package of free tools and services designed to help mobile startups develop apps.

Twitter and Airbnb have also increased their presence in Taiwan, each providing Chinese version of their websites. Airbnb is a website enabling people to rent out rooms and homes, with over 1,000 listings in Taiwan alone. Both companies have recently promoted their business in Taiwan through public relation agencies to further impress their images on local consumers to prepare for future growth of their business on the island.

Industry executives point out that although the size of Taiwan's market for Internet-based services is relatively small, the island's purchasing power and typically positive regard for business services by foreign providers not to mention its abundant supply of tech expertise make for a sound market.