Antony Lee, Communications Master (李欣岳 / 媒體公關總監)

負責媒體與社群溝通相關輔導。加入 AppWorks 前有 18 年媒體經驗，是台灣第一批主跑網路產業的記者，先後任職《數位時代》副總編輯、《Cheers 快樂工作人》資深主編、SmartM 網站總編輯。畢業於交大管科系，長期關注媒體產業變化，熱愛閱讀商業與科技趨勢、企業與人物故事，樂於與人交流分享，期許自己當個「Internet 傳教士」。

過去幾個月，NFT 熱潮瞬間吸引了極大的關注。幾乎每一週，都有主流媒體報導某位藝術家、藝人、球星、創業家的 NFT 商品賣出高價。在這些讓人目不暇給的新聞中，美聯社 (The Associated Press) 、《時代》雜誌 (Time)、《紐約時報》(The New York Times) 也快速推出 NFT 的應用，我覺得對媒體產業的意義更大，因為，這象徵了媒體產業即將進入 NFT 的新時代。

3 月 11 日，1846 年創立、今年已 174 歲的美聯社完成 (可能是) 新聞史上首顆 NFT 拍賣。美聯社為了紀念 2020 年拜登與川普的選戰，成為第一次在區塊鏈上鏈的美國大選，將投票結果製作成數位藝術作品「A View from Outer Space」，以 NFT 的方式開放競標，在這幅創作中，以外太空的視角，美國各州分別以藍色或紅色標示，代表著拜登或川普在各州勝出。最終以 100.9 顆以太幣成交，以當時幣價計算，約等於 18 萬美元。

3 月 22 日，1923 年創立，今年已 98 歲的《時代》雜誌，宣布以 NFT 型式拍賣過往三期的雜誌封面，分別是「上帝已死？」(1966 年 4 月發行)、「真相已死？」(2017 年 4 月發行) 、「法幣已死？」(2021 年 3 月發行)，最高拍賣價格為「真相已死？」的 88 顆以太幣，以當時幣價計算，約等於 13.8 萬美元。隨後，《時代》雜誌也陸續將多期對人類具有歷史意義的封面，以 NFT 型式拍賣，例如 「Amateur Photographer」(1953 年 11 月發行)、「Space Exploration」(1959 年 1 月發行)、「The Telephone Man」(1959 年 2 月)、「The Computer in Society」(1965 年 4 月發行) 等，分別象徵照相機、太空探索、電話、電腦走入人類世界。在概念上，類似以 NFT 發行前期雜誌的復刻版。

3 月 25 日，1851 年創刊，至今已 170 歲的《紐約時報》，專欄作家 Keven Roose 就將一篇網站文章〈在區塊鏈上買這篇專欄〉(Buy This Column on the Blockchain!)，以 NFT 型式進行 24 小時拍賣，他並在專欄中問道：「為什麼記者不能也加入 NFT 派對？」最終，這篇專欄的 NFT，以 350 顆以太幣結標，用當時幣價計算，約等於 56 萬美元，並將所得捐給《紐約時報》旗下擁有 110 年歷史的 Neediest Cases Fund 慈善基金，未來每一次轉手交易，這個基金可以再獲得 10% 的版稅 (Royalty)。

事實上，台灣媒體在 NFT 領域已有初步切入，並非一片空白。4 月 19 日，「台灣事實查核中心」的兩篇作品，被交易平台 FACTS-NFT 選為第一波推出的查核報告 NFT 收藏品，鼓勵大眾以 NFT 的方式支持查核組織運作，共同打擊假新聞。在第一個月，每則查核報告會以 0.05 顆以太幣交易，事實查核組織將獲得 86% 的交易價值，14% 是平台的服務費用，事實查核組織也能夠在每次的轉手交易中，抽取 10% 的費用。

媒體報導新科技、新應用、新商業模式並不稀奇。值得注意的，則是在全球擁有廣泛影響力的百年媒體，選擇在 NFT 發展初期，就積極下海測試水溫，啟動新商業模式的數位轉型，因為 NFT 正預示了另一個媒體新時代來臨。

儘管時空條件並不相同，但相較於 Internet 的發展歷史，NFT 走入人們生活，進入主流媒體的報導視野，所需的時間極短。Internet 技術的前身 ARPANET ，早在 1960 年代就已誕生，但直到冷戰結束後的 1990 年代，才進入商業化，在 1995 年劃時代網路股 Netscape 成功 IPO 後，Internet 才獲得主流財經媒體的關注和報導，還要再等 5 到 10 年甚至更久以後，媒體產業才進入內容數位化、網路原生內容、數位內容訂閱等數位轉型。以太坊上的 NFT 技術協定，在 2017 年 9 月被首度提出，2018 年 6 月才被確認成為業界標準，距今僅有 3 年。

人們閱讀、獲取資訊與觀點的需求不會消失，只會轉移。可以預期，除了傳統媒體擁抱 NFT 之外，未來 3 到 5 年，將有一波建立在 NFT 模式上的新媒體創業潮。一如在 Internet、Mobile Internet 帶來的典範轉移下，因使用、閱讀行為轉變，帶動各種數位原生、行動原生、社群原生、知識訂閱原生媒體的創業熱潮。 

NFT 是 Non-Fungible Token 的縮寫，中文翻譯是「非同質代幣」，也就是「同質代幣」(Fungible Token) 的對比。不管是紙鈔、硬幣，或是比特幣、以太幣，都屬同質代幣，每一個單位皆等值、相同，今天我借你十顆以太幣，下個月你再還我十顆，儘管是不同的十顆，但價值都一樣，借貸雙方都會接受；非同質代幣則每顆雖然近似，但卻並不盡然相同，某位明星球員的球員卡 NFT，編號第 1 號、第 88 號、第 5487 號就是不一樣。NFT 可應用在資產的數位擁有權證明。

正因為每個 NFT 都是獨一無二，所有交易紀錄和擁有證明都紀錄在區塊鏈上。所以 NFT 具備了收藏的價值，不論是文字、影片、音樂、插畫、數位藝術品等各種可以數位形式發行的商品，只要具備收藏價值，都有可能以 NFT 的形式發行。

相比廣告和訂閱，能為媒體帶來更大的營收

對於媒體創業者，乃至於整體產業來說，NFT 很可能是繼廣告模式、訂閱模式後，第三個重要的商業模式，重要性以及為媒體創造的營收，將超越前兩個商業模式。廣告、訂閱、NFT 模式，分別對應的是讀者、訂戶、粉絲三種媒體使用者的類型，用行銷漏斗來解釋，上層是讀者 (廣告模式)、中層是訂戶 (訂閱模式)、下層是粉絲 (NFT 模式)；用簡單的經濟學模型來解釋，在需求曲線之下，NFT 模式能為媒體創造最大面積的營收、其次是訂閱模式，廣告模式則最差。三個模式的營收潛力與其他特色，分別分析如下：

聚集讀者的廣告模式

從營收角度來說，廣告模式的成果最差。媒體需要靠特定主題聚集、吸睛一批免費閱讀的讀者，以此來賣廣告版位獲取營收，以流量為經營重點。但在資訊爆炸、人人注意力有限的情況下，要吸引讀者閱讀內容的難度越來越高，任何單一媒體要靠提升流量拉抬廣告業績，將越來越辛苦。此外，對媒體來說，數位廣告整體儘管仍在成長，但卻越來越難賺，大部分的廣告營收，都集中在少數科技巨頭身上，例如，2020 年美國的數位廣告市場，Google 與 Facebook 兩家就拿下 55.6% 的市佔率，而市場朝向科技巨頭傾斜的情況，短期內很難翻轉。

此外，以點擊數來衡量內容優劣，也降低了媒體願意投入時間、人力、金錢製作好內容的動機。為了追求流量，媒體只能選擇讀者最大公約數的主題和內容，最後結果，往往造成網路上到處都是類似的免費內容，而深度、優質、有影響力，但讀者基數相對較小的主題與內容，在這樣的模式下，則越來越難出現。

爭取訂戶的訂閱模式

相較廣告模式，訂閱模式的營收潛力較佳。訂閱模式的關鍵，在於媒體聚焦某個特定主題，長期持續產出品質穩定的內容，以贏得訂戶的信賴 (訂戶願意預付未來一年的費用，訂閱某個媒體的內容，代表訂戶相信未來一年內，能持續收到符合期待的內容)。雖然可因此創造比廣告模式更多營收，但一致的訂閱價格，代表與每一位訂戶的關係，等同於無差異的 Commodity，缺乏具體衡量每個內容價值的機制，有無法做到差異化訂價的限制。

此外，近年訂閱制興起，加速造成媒體產業 M 型化，擁有全球品牌形象的大媒體，或是具有特色利基的個人與微型媒體，是這個趨勢下的贏家。對絕大多數的媒體來說，要依據媒體屬性、閱讀行為等考量，在官網上建立起付費牆、訂閱機制，都是不小的技術門檻，再加上數位訂閱不受地理限制的特色，讓擁有全球性權威品牌形象的媒體，得以在訂閱模式中大幅勝出，根據 FIPP 與 CeleraOne 統計，全球目前達到 10 萬訂戶等級的媒體網站，共有 38 個，其中一半來自英語系媒體，例如《紐約時報》、《華盛頓郵報》、《華爾街日報》、《金融時報》、《經濟學人》等，皆是全球在各媒體領域的龍頭，另外一半，幾乎是各語系中的唯一代表，例如，中文或日文僅各有一家媒體網站。對於中型、區域級、侷限在單一國家的媒體，推廣訂閱制並不容易，很難在訂戶規模上獲得太大突破。

反而是一人或微型媒體，更有突破的機會，因為這類媒體的營運成本低，外部生態系的支援日趨成熟。根據 Antler 估計，在創作者經濟 (Creator Economy) 的生態系中，全球目前共有超過 220 個平台或技術開發商，例如電子報平台 Substack 等，提供各種服務與技術解決方案，讓創作者專心創作內容，直接帶動這幾年一人或微型媒體加速興起，例如英語電子報的 Stratechery (作者為居住在台灣的 Ben Thompson)，或是中文電子報的《科技島讀》(好可惜將在 6 月停刊)，都是一人媒體的代表，但在相關的科技與網路產業內，卻有不輸多數單一媒體的訂閱戶或影響力。

經營粉絲的 NFT 模式

和前兩個模式相比，NFT 模式的營收潛力最佳，因為它可彰顯每個內容不同的價值。在 NFT 模式下，營收來自粉絲的熱情支持，依據個人的喜好購買 NFT 商品，每一個 NFT 對每位粉絲來說，都有不同的價格，由價高者獲得。

衡量每個 NFT 的價值，技術並非主要考量，最重要的關鍵，在於發行者的 IP 或是 NFT 內所涵蓋的內容。好的內容來自有特殊的歷史意義、創新的表達方式、獨到的詮釋觀點與角度⋯⋯等各種面向，也因此，媒體用心製作的好內容，在 NFT 的模式下，將有更多元、更有效率的內容變現機會。

《連線》(Wired) 雜誌創辦人、科技趨勢思想家 Kevin Kelly 在 2008 年的經典文章「1,000 位鐵粉」(1,000 True Fans) 就預言：「成功的創作者，你不需要數百萬位客戶，你只需要 1,000 位鐵粉 (True Fans)，這些鐵粉，會購買任何你創造的商品。」

對媒體來說，NFT 模式則將 Kevin Kelly 的預言更進一步實現，因為鐵粉有更方便、更實質的支持方式。以我個人為例，從小就愛閱讀雜誌、大學編校刊，從第一份工作開始投入雜誌與媒體工作 18 年，至今仍收藏許多雜誌，例如 911 事件、Michael Jackson 過世、Steve Jobs 過世、歐巴馬首度當選美國總統、Facebook 用戶突破 10 億人⋯⋯等重要歷史事件，我都會選擇我最信任的雜誌品牌，購買能提供我最權威、最具歷史意義觀點的當期雜誌來收藏，甚至會購買收藏特殊期數的復刻版；在雜誌工作時，也經常會有企業、受訪者或是教學單位，希望授權報導的文字內容、照片、資訊圖表 (通常收不到什麼錢)。在 NFT 模式下，這些行為都變得更有意義與價值，媒體有更具體的變現與獲利方式，收藏者手中具有歷史意義、特殊價值的媒體內容，也有了更客觀與便利的鑑價和割愛交易方式。

對 NFT 長線發展樂觀看待的兩個原因

為什麼我對 NFT 對於媒體產業未來的發展如此樂觀？來自中期與長期共兩個原因。

中期的原因，是各種區塊鏈應用快速進化的特質。至今，建構在區塊鏈技術上的加密貨幣資產，曾一度突破 2.5 兆美元，儘管價格乖離、波動劇烈，但並無損區塊鏈、加密貨幣資產價值長期向上的趨勢，而受限各國防洗錢、監管等規範，加密貨幣兌換各國法幣仍有諸多限制，實務上仍有許多不便之處，等於將這些加密貨幣資產「鎖」在區塊鏈的平行時空中。

這也間接為區塊鏈技術，提供了完美的快速疊代條件。任何區塊鏈上的創新應用，都有可能在加密貨幣的世界中快速獲得市場反饋、進入商業化應用，就如同進化論一般，多數遺世獨立的小島上，會在極短的時間內，演化出十分多樣性的獨特物種，就像過去幾年，區塊鏈這座島上，不論是比特幣、ICO、智能合約、DeFi 或現在的 NFT，每隔幾個月就會橫空出世新商業模式吸引大眾目光，NFT 能在不到 3 年的時間，創造可觀的關注與影響力，就是證明，而 NFT 對於媒體產生的革命，也會比 Internet 來得更快、更具巔覆力。

另一個長期的原因，則是區塊鏈以及 NFT 對於經濟與社會將帶來更深遠的影響。過往 30 年來，人類社會共經歷兩波大型的數位化遷徙浪潮，第一波是 Internet，將各種實體世界的資訊數位化；第二波則是區塊鏈，正在將各種實體世界的價值數位化。

在 Internet 的典範轉移下，誕生了電子商務，從最初將既有的實體零售，移轉到網路上。隨後再逐步發展出電商平台、垂直電商、廣告導購、社群電商、直播電商、行動電商、OMO 虛實融合等原生的商業模式，並產生了 24 小時隨時可購物、4 小時就到貨這些全新的使用行為；在區塊鏈的典範轉移下，NFT 就像是每一個獨一無二的商品，都能在區塊鏈的世界中取得對應的價格，目前出現的應用或商業模式，都仍屬於向下相容、傳統模式轉型，對照過往電商的發展，都還在非常早期的發展階段，隨著產業生態系更成熟，會有更多原生的應用和商業模式誕生。

在媒體產業歷經廣告模式、訂閱模式的探索與商業化後，更不該錯過 NFT 模式。NFT 不僅不會和前兩個模式產生衝突 (媒體的廣告和訂閱模式，在擴大流量與內容聚焦上，有許多衝突之處)，需要砍掉重練才能切入，還能創造更大的營收來源，可用來招募更多優秀的記者、編輯、攝影、美術，製作更優質、更有意義、更值得被收藏的報導、照片、影片、資訊圖表等內容，而這些在 NFT 模式下，都是具有價值的內容資產。

這不僅適用於既有媒體的數位轉型，更有可能因此創造另一波新媒體創業熱潮，對數位轉型、經營挑戰皆不易的媒體產業來說，對於 NFT 帶來的難得契機，不僅不用妄自菲薄，更值得我們樂觀期待。

【歡迎所有 AI、Blockchain、NFT 與目標東南亞市場的創業者，加入專為你們服務的 AppWorks Accelerator】

Jack An, Analyst (安良方 / 分析師)

Jack is an Analyst covering AppWorks Accelerator. Before joining the team, he was a co-founder and early team member at two InsurTech startups, where he developed a passion in user experience and product development. Previous to his startup journey he worked as a commercial property underwriter at Chubb Insurance in New Zealand. Jack graduated with a Bachelor of Music from Waikato University where he studied classical piano. He loves to cook, read and is a practicing stoic.

Hi, I’m Jack, I joined AppWorks as an Analyst in April 2019, not long after I burnt through two startups, one I co-founded in 2017 and the other as a founding team member. My experience taught me that building a successful company is extremely difficult, and if I wanted to improve my odds, I needed to learn from people who have successfully built them. 

Now at AppWorks, I get to work alongside 1,300 founders of all stages amongst a variety of startups, 395 active ones to be exact, across the most exciting region that is Greater Southeast Asia, giving me truly a grand scope of founders to learn from.

This year, the coronavirus disrupted the normal world order, taking millions of lives in the process and slowing down economies all around the world. Amongst the chaos, startups from all stages were affected. Besides the select few that prevailed, most startups either saw stagnant growth, or worst, shut down their business. 

On my journey to become a better founder myself, behind this very unfortunate event was a learning opportunity of a lifetime. This is why I set out to write this piece, to document my learnings and improve my understanding. I got to see just how startups that overcome the pandemic reacted differently to those that didn’t.

Amongst our network of founders, I had the chance to closely observe Ming Ming Chen, the founder and CEO of KKday – a travel platform that provides local experiences and tours across Asia. I got to witness first hand how he coped with drastic changes that affected his business, how he made quality decisions that pushed KKday to prevail, and how he quickly mobilized the entire company to effectively weather the storm.

I believe the key lessons distilled here are applicable to early-stage founders all the way up to founders heading into series B, especially for those that want to learn how to lead a team through uncertainties. The COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-generation crisis, pushing founders to the test in every single aspect possible, so the lessons observed here should be great additions to your arsenal.

First, plan for the worst to conquer yourself

Back in January when the pandemic first broke out, I hopped on a call with Ming Ming to check in on KKday’s pulse. I remember distinctly that he was very calm and collected. It was hard to tell from his demeanor that 90% of travel in this region was wiped out almost over night.

I asked him what’s going through his head. Ming Ming mentioned that in his 20+ years of entrepreneurship, a key principle he practiced was to always plan for the worst. 

By always planning for the worst, KKday has been extremely disciplined in managing their cash flow and balance sheet. The key principle is to not sink short-term assets into long-term investments, optimizing for cash flow flexibility in return. 

This played a major role in neutralizing the initial shock of the outbreak, allowing KKday to protect their brand and refund customers fully, despite a significant drop in revenue.

The other benefit of planning for the worst is better managed expectations. When bad situations don’t turn out as bad as you had anticipated, then your own morale and energy are left unperturbed. 

This side effect may seem negligible at first, but being the captain of the ship that’s lost at sea, the crew’s attitude is an extension of it’s captain. Displaying the slightest frustration and anger does not instill confidence in your team, but only serves to discourage them. What seemed like a minuscule change in perspective can actually impact the entire company.

By simply planning for the worst situation possible, Ming Ming and KKday were able to soften the initial blow of the pandemic. But as the travel industry came to a near freeze, how can a founder turn around their startup’s fate from barely managing survival to proactively creating opportunity?

A decision framework against uncertainty

Having led 2 companies to IPO before starting KKday, Ming Ming draws from a wealth of knowledge and experience to overcome the pandemic. He explains that the result of any decision is amplified during troubled times, either directly adding more uncertainty to your team or reducing it. 

Furthermore, the result also impacts the decision maker’s future credits to lead their team. Thus, increasing the decision quality across the company was a key lever to pushing KKday forward.

Ming Ming distilled his decision framework into for steps ”見-識-謀-斷” which can be translated to “seek-digest-strategize-decide”. Every decision made within KKday goes through this rigorous process.

The first step is to “seek” information and data that’d accurately represent the reality of the decision. The second step is to “digest” the information and to understand the scope and the stakes. The third step is to “strategize”, plan and test the hypothesis of your decision; it is important to stress test your thesis and evaluate whether or not it adequately stands up to reality by inviting other stakeholders into the discussion to either validate or invalidate your understanding.

The last step is to “decide”. The founder or the leader of the team needs to make the decision alone, as they need to carry the responsibility of the result. They need to decide on the tradeoffs of making the decision, and whether or not to proceed or revisit the preceding steps.

Throughout 2020, KKday has transitioned from selling tours for foreigners traveling in a new country to weekend getaways and other domestic excursions for people living in Taiwan, while also branching into products that extend far beyond their typical offering including protective masks and packets of mala hot pot. 

In the process of venturing into the unknown, Ming Ming and his team carefully used this framework to test their hypothesis, efficiently and effectively pushing forward their progress without losing precious resources and energy. 

And as the year draws to a close, we are seeing all of these initiatives not only making up for the missing revenue, but also enabling KKday to strengthen its brand and build goodwill among its customer base, while acquiring a slew of new users in the process.

But making better decisions is only part of the equation, what truly pushed KKday above the line was their execution upon these decisions. So just how did KKday, a company with hundreds of employees, with operations spanning across 6 countries adapt to the new normal so swiftly?

Using organization structure to drive your strategy

Much like a sports team that changes their lineup according to their game plan and the opposing team, a founder needs to structure their organization and teams relative to the environment and strategy, to maximize the organization’s output. 

Once Ming Ming and his team decided to introduce new products and focus on domestic travel, the way the organization was previously structured needed to be reshaped, as it no longer yielded optimal efficiency in promoting the new strategy.

Rather than having the Taiwan HQ team approve all products for travelers on their platform, KKday adapted to procuring products locally, authorizing local teams to source products for their own markets allowing them to move much faster than before. 

The teams also overhauled their KPIs to focus on improving new product sales and domestic travel sales. These new KPIs became the guidelines and instructions that empowered the new teams to directly facilitate the change in strategy, enabling the company to quickly transition from serving outbound travelers to domestic travelers. 

COVID-19 hit different countries with varying severity, creating non-linear recovery across all of KKday’s active markets. The organizational restructuring served as an effective way for local teams to rapidly respond to local conditions as needed, helping the travel company to pull off an incredibly successful year by all standard measures—no doubt exemplified by the US$ 75 million Series C they recently raised in the midst of a pandemic. 

There is much more to learn

By always planning for the worst, Ming Ming was able to soften the initial impact for the pandemic, and by improving the decision quality across the board, KKday was able to create opportunities even when the odds were stacked against them. Most importantly, by efficiently managing the organization, KKday was able to execute quickly upon the opportunity they identified and improve their chance of survival at every corner and every turn.

These lessons observed here are not commonly found in public domains, and only really shared from one founder to another. As I tried to build my first startup at the age of 25, I mostly did it in isolation without knowing any other founders at all. Looking back, so many mistakes could have been avoided, and so much time could have been saved, if I had just learned from founders who were a few years more journeyed than me. 

【So if you are like me, and you wish to become a better founder and build a successful company in the future, then I encourage you to join a community like AppWorks Accelerator, where you can interact with and learn from over 1,300 founders just like Ming Ming.】

Natalie Lin, Analyst (林楓 / 分析師)

Natalie is an Analyst covering AppWorks Accelerator and Greater Southeast Asia. Before joining the team, she worked in the search engine marketing and email marketing teams at Zappos, America’s leading shoes and fashion online retailer, where she primarily focused on KPI management, campaign optimization, and project management. Born in Canada and raised in the Middle East, Natalie returned to Taiwan for high school before moving to the US for college and work. She received her Bachelors of Marketing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Outside of work she likes to read, travel, and play video games.

2020 has finally come to an end. Although the world is still shrouded in the shadow of the black swan event of COVID-19, the crisis has reached a turning point. As the pandemic continues to affect all parts of the world, many organizations, companies, and startups have turned to big data and AI to transform and optimize the efficiency of business activities, directly accelerating the overall development of the AI industry. According to IDC’s report, the global AI market in 2020 will amount to US$ 156.5 billion, with a growth rate of 12.3%, of which 80% will be attributed to software. IDC also optimistically expects that the market size of the AI industry, considered by some as a blue ocean, will compound at an annual rate of 17% and exceed US$ 300B by 2024.

For various AI initiatives and applications to flourish, data centers must be fully developed to support the storage of data and training models, brain-like IaaS (information-as-a-service), and PaaS (platform-as-a-service) cloud services. After meeting the performance requirements of AI for cloud services, data in various fields such as finance and manufacturing can be used more efficiently to accelerate AI technology.

It should then come as no surprise that leading international cloud players such as Google and Microsoft have recently announced their intentions to deepen their investments in Taiwan’s AI Infrastructure. Last September, Google unveiled that it would build a third data center in Yunlin, while Microsoft disclosed at the end of October that it would set up its first Azure data center in Taiwan. As Taiwan’s future cloud infrastructure realizes, developers will no longer need to build services through overseas data centers, which will accelerate AI innovations and applications by local teams, especially in areas that are more sensitive to data sovereignty, such as finance.

Every 6 months, AppWorks releases an updated Taiwan AI Ecosystem Map, distilling the latest trends and developments while highlighting various companies leading the charge. In the process of reviewing the overall ecosystem changes, we have observed the following trends in the second half of 2020.

AI in healthtech has attracted investors’ attention 

Although the pandemic has negatively impacted economic productivity and overall investor appetite, it has unequivocally accelerated the adoption of AI innovation in healthcare.  Despite the rather barren investment landscape in the first half of 2020, aetherAI, which provides medical imaging AI development services and AI digital pathology systems, managed to close a  US$ 6M series A round led by Quanta Computing. In the second half of 2020, Deep01, which assists medical staff in interpreting computer tomography (CT) and provides an AI image interpretation system for cerebral hemorrhaging, successfully raised NT$ 80M (US$2.7M) in seed funding led by ASUS Capital. In addition, Heroic-Faith, which pioneered innovative medical devices such as an AI stethoscope and a smart respiratory monitoring system, also completed a US$ 4M series A round of fundraising in 2020.

Moving forward, the next step for Taiwan’s healthtech and AI industry is to go global. As the main markets for medical AI-related products are still focused in developed countries like the United States, Japan, and Europe, Taiwan’s visibility coupled with the impact of the pandemic will have an effect on an international scale. Whether these innovative startups can successfully go overseas to scale will become the focus of attention in the future.

Corporates are accelerating their search for transformation and collaboration opportunities in startup circles

For many traditional Taiwanese companies, big data and AI have been at the crux of their digital transformation initiatives and overall search for the next growth engines. In 2020, Commonwealth Magazine and Europe’s IMD jointly released the first digital transformation survey between Taiwan and Europe. It pointed out that up to 52% of Taiwanese companies have not yet been digitally transformed, and only 4% of companies achieved or exceeded their digital transformation goals. Whether it’s in-house big data and AI project teams or looking for partners in the startup world, it has become the newest goal for companies to innovate.

The most direct model is creating corporate venture capital (CVC) arms to invest in new ventures with strategic value. In addition to investment, Taiwan’s major companies are also exploring other collaborative models. For example, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of IoT systems Advantech worked with StarFab to establish an accelerator. Wistron, on the other hand, not only promotes upgrading the industry through partnerships with startups but also actively lays out future transformations. They collaborated with NCTU to establish embedded AI research centers, and jointly planned Wistron Lab @ Garage+ with Chia Hsin Cultural Foundation and Times Foundation to find growth opportunities in the next decade.

Taiwan’s AI ecosystem is bolstered by the successful prevention of the epidemic

Due to the success of the Taiwan government and all citizens and residents in fighting the pandemic, Taiwan’s AI ecosystem continued to flourish in the second half of 2020. On the startup accelerator side, AppWorks Accelerator has been recruiting specifically for AI startups since August 2018, fostering a total of 84 teams from both inside and outside of Taiwan. Other community partners such as Microsoft for Startups, SparkLabs Taipei, and Taiwan AI x Robotics Accelerator also recruited a number of AI-related startups to inject new energy into Taiwan’s AI ecosystem. In the second half of 2020, due to the proper control of the coronavirus, it was relatively safe to host physical events in Taiwan. The largest startup event 2020 Meet Taipei showcased many startups using AI and big data to create more value-added services. 

Taiwan AI Academy, Taiwan AI Labs, and the Artificial Intelligence Foundation are Taiwan’s representative institutions in the field of AI education and research, and continue to inject talent and innovative technologies for the development of AI in Taiwan. With the support from the government, institutions, and overall ecosystem, Taiwan can continue to promote the implementation of AI in various industries and integrate innovation into traditional businesses. This gives an opportunity for startups to leverage the resources that Taiwan can offer and connect with players in the ecosystem that are upgrading Taiwan’s AI capabilities.

Taiwan’s AI Ecosystem Second Half 2020 is produced by AppWorks and is updated every 6 months. If you have any comments or suggestions, please send an email to [email protected].

【If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with AI / IoT, Blockchain / DeFi, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.】

Jun Wakabayashi, Analyst (若林純 / 分析師)

Jun is an Analyst covering both AppWorks Accelerator and Greater Southeast Asia. Born and bred in America, Jun brings a wealth of international experience to AppWorks. He spent the last several years before joining AppWorks working for Focus Reports, where he conducted sector-based market research and interviewed high-level government leaders and industry executives across the globe. He’s now lived in 7 countries outside US and Taiwan, while traveling to upwards of 50 for leisure, collectively highlighting his unique propensity for cross-cultural immersion and international business. Jun received his Bachelors in Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

It’s been one heck of a year, for blockchain especially. The industry hasn’t seen this much excitement since the ICO fervor of 2017. In March 2020, crypto prices saw a significant crash as the global economy entered into lockdown due to COVID-19. Fast forward to the year-end, BTC has reached an all-time high of US$33K on the back of increasing interest from major institutional investors. Meanwhile, decentralized finance (DeFi) has very quickly captured everyone’s mindshare, now with over $18B of total value locked into an ever expanding list of decentralized platforms such as Compound and Uniswap.

They say heroes are often born in a crisis. Well, despite the pandemic, this past half year saw 14 new companies added to Taiwan’s blockchain ecosystem map, indicative of three primary trends currently driving the industry forward.

1. Proliferation of DeFi

The concept of DeFi may be relatively unknown to outsiders prior to 2020, in the same way that BTC was prior to 2017. That’s because it was really only this year that DeFi was thrusted into the limelight. Decentralized lending protocol Compound was arguably the frontrunner of the DeFi craze. Launched in 2018, the platform enables users to collateralize cryptocurrencies and earn interest, while also allowing them to borrow other cryptoassets against the collateral. Algorithms are used to automatically adjust interest rates based on supply and demand, while smart contracts eliminate the traditional need for an intermediary such as a bank. 

Compound was certainly novel in and of itself, but what really helped jumpstart adoption was in June 2020 when it started distributing its native governance token COMP to all lenders and borrowers on the platform. Similar to shareholders of a publicly listed company, token holders are entitled to vote on any changes to the protocol, or sell their tokens on the secondary market for extra returns on top of the interest earned from lending.

The free reward was enough to attract hordes of early users eager to park their crypto in hopes of maximizing yield, otherwise known as “liquidity mining,” allowing Compound to briefly overtake Maker as the leading DeFi project in terms of total value locked-in (TVL). It wasn’t long before the rest of the industry started rolling out liquidity incentives of their own. Decentralized exchanges Balancer and Uniswap each announced distribution of their respective governance tokens to users within months of each other. Both serve as automated market makers that create liquidity pools for users to seamlessly buy and sell tokens, albeit in slightly different fashions.

Similarly, in Taiwan, we saw the launch of Black Hole Swap, developed by AW#21 alumni Hakka Finance, and C.R.E.A.M Finance, started by the founder of both Mithril and M17 (AppWorks is an investor) Jeffrey Huang. C.R.E.A.M repackages the best functionalities of Compound, Uniswap, and Balancer all into one platform, and is now among the top 5 decentralized lending platforms in terms of TVL according to DeFi Pulse.

The DeFi space is relentless. Hacks, forks, “vampire attacks”—it seems like the moment any one project finds some modicum of success, there will be a handful others lurking in the shadows, ready to replicate, iterate, or outright steal the idea right out from under. But it’s still early days for DeFi, and one can argue that this type of competition is natural for such a nascent industry. The hackers, arbitrageurs, speculators, and bad actors will stress test the technology and incentive schemes and fully push them to the limits. Ultimately, only the fittest, the most resilient and practical will be left standing, collectively strengthening the ecosystem as a whole. 

2. NFTs on the rise

Following DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have continued rising in popularity globally. Gaming and artwork collectibles serve as the primary use cases so far, no doubt perpetuated by decentralized marketplaces such as Rarible, SuperRare, and Async. There are now fully virtual worlds like Decentraland dedicated to showcasing NFTs. In the offline world, famed auction house Christies recently sold their very first NFT artwork for over US$130,000 back in October 2020. 

The jetsetters of digital collectibles, Dapper Labs (the team behind CryptoKitties, AppWorks is an investor) officially launched NBA Top Shot in mid-2020, with revenues reaching US$2 million by year end. The NFT-powered marketplace allows users to buy and sell “digital moments” captured from NBA games. These moments are then stored on the Flow blockchain, an entertainment-focused protocol developed by Dapper Labs which recently raised US$18 million in a token sale.

In Taiwan, AW#20 alumni Lootex has been a long-time believer of NFTs, creating a decentralized auction house for people to create, buy, or sell cryptoitems. They just recently partnered with startup Eternalink and Spanish winery NEKEAS to create NFTs every time a bottle of the limited edition Eternalove red wine is sold. Meanwhile, Alex Liu, the founder and CEO of Taiwan’s largest crypto exchange MAX mentioned in a recent interview that NFT serves as a critical bridge between the virtual and physical worlds and will be the focus of their development efforts in the coming years.

Riding off the excitement of DeFi, NFTs are clearly growing in prominence, with weekly trading volume nearing US$2.5 million in December, up severalfold from a couple months prior. While collectibles and entertainment have occupied the spotlight, NFTs and their verifiable proof of authenticity have the potential to extend into many other areas including real estate, supply chain, identity verification, and copyright management, and yes, even crossovers into DeFi. Compared to DeFi, however, where Taiwanese startups have gained global recognition, NFTs have received much less interest in Taiwan; but, certainly there’s much more room to play and momentum is already visibly picking up. 

3. Crypto goes mainstream

Although beginning with a rather sluggish start, 2020 was most certainly a win for crypto bulls. Increasing interest and support from major institutions like Square, MicroStrategy, MassMutual, Visa, and PayPal collectively served as a monumental endorsement, helping to push the price of BTC far past its 2017 levels and into a record high of US$33K at the time of writing. Evidently, COVID-19 was a large driver in accelerating digital adoption, boosting confidence in cryptocurrencies like BTC as a safe and reliable store of value. Many countries from China to the US are now exploring the creation of their own central bank digital currencies (CBDC), perhaps in direct response to Facebook’s Libra project, which has since been renamed to Diem to signal its independence and distance itself from the social media giant.

When it comes to crypto investment, although much work has been done under the hood to reduce friction and improve the overall user experience, widespread skepticism and caution is still common among the average retail investor due to the volatility and complexity of the market.

In the second half of the year, we saw several Taiwanese startups working on innovative ways to reduce the entry barriers for new investors. Targeting newcomers with zero crypto investing experience, Cappuu (AW#17) is an easy-to-use crypto wallet that allows users to purchase stablecoins with credit cards and invest in high-yield DeFi products without any gas fees. Recently closing a US$1 million seed round, Steaker (AW#20) is a crypto asset management platform that presents several different predetermined investment strategies based on users’ risk appetite and return profile. Fuly.AI (AW#20) helps investors automate their portfolio allocation and interest collection on crypto exchanges like Bitfinex to maximize returns. 

The pace at which blockchain has been evolving is truly astounding, and the pandemic has likely only turbocharged the development. Given its more conservative nature, Taiwan has traditionally lagged behind the latest and greatest in software innovations. But if its success with DeFi this past year is any indication, Taiwan punches well above its weight when it comes to blockchain, so far matching industry trends stride for stride. If Taiwanese entrepreneurs can continue evolving and iterating alongside the speed of crypto, they will be well positioned to define the next wave of blockchain projects moving into 2021, whether that’s in DeFi, NFT, or otherwise. 

Taiwan’s Blockchain Ecosystem Map Second Half 2020 is jointly produced by AppWorks, Blockcast (AW#14), BlockTempo (AW#16), and Zombit (AW#21). It is updated every six months. If you have any feedback and suggestions, please email [email protected].

【If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with AI / IoT, Blockchain / DeFi, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.】

Izza Lin, Recruiting Master (林于荃 / 招募輔導長)

Izza is a Recruiting Master responsible for advising AppWorks Startups on all talent acquisition matters. Before joining AppWorks, she built a successful early career in headhunting firms such as Rising Management Consulting and Recruit Express, where she specialized in recruiting quality talents for internet and e-commerce companies, guiding hundreds of engineers, product managers, marketers and general managers to fulfill key positions for her clients. In between Rising and RE, she headed Southeast Asia Market for an e-commerce startup, USO HK, where she found her passion for helping small guys break the status quo. Izza received her B.A. in Economics from Washington State University and spent 5 years of her childhood in Myanmar and Cambodia. This diverse background has inextricably contributed to her love for traveling and “wine tasting”.

As a HR consultant for startups, I’m often asked this question by founders. In the early stages of their startup journeys, founders typically spend the majority of their focus on product development or sales and marketing, with recruiting often left as an afterthought. At some point, however, they always arrive back at the classic chicken and egg problem: in order to grow, they need the right talent, but in order to attract and retain the right talent, they need to grow.  To get out of that cycle, I usually advise founders to bulk up their startup’s HR muscle.

There’s certainly no hard and fast rule on when to hire an in-house HR, but generally after achieving product-market fit, there are some rules of thumb around team sizes founders can first take into consideration.

10-15 team members: Resources can be quite limited at this stage. As a founder, you probably didn’t have many issues recruiting the first few employees on your own, but as the business starts to scale and accelerate, the team will also need to expand accordingly. Bringing on outside talent to manage the hiring and onboarding process internally will be critical in preventing HR matters from occupying valuable mindshare. 

15-30 team members: So you managed to get to this stage without hiring any dedicated person to handle recruiting. It still might be wise to bring in someone, as HR expands beyond just recruiting to also include retention. While attrition is quite normal in any startup, retaining an employee (granted they’re performing well) is significantly cheaper than hiring a replacement, which can often waste valuable time and resources. 

30+ team members: If the startup has more than 30 employees and doesn’t have an HR yet, you may need to consider hiring this role as soon as possible. At this size, sourcing job boards, editing job descriptions, facilitating interview and onboarding logistics will likely distract you from more mission critical things such as fundraising, product, or business development. 

HR pains of a scaling startup

Many early-stage founders refuse to hire an HR because they view it as an unnecessary expense, and one that’s more suitable for large enterprises. In reality, many founders are unaware of or substantially underestimate the HR problems and needs they’ll encounter as a startup scales and the team sizes grow: 

1. Recruit specialists vs. generalists. In earlier stages of your startup, you’re likely hiring more generalists that can wear multiple hats due to limited resources. Once your company starts to scale, however, you’ll usually need to divide and conquer, that is recruiting more specialists that can significantly amplify the efforts of each function. For example, full-stack engineers might be more commonplace in fresh startups, who would then gradually be replaced by separate front-end and back-end engineers as the organization grows. 

2. Attracting and retaining talents. This includes everything from building the employer brand and marketing specific job openings to sourcing better quality candidates to adjusting compensation/benefits and work-life balance policies to optimize retention.

3. Regulatory & compliance requirements. Labor laws can be quite complex from country to country. Founders need to stay informed on basic hiring & firing legal frameworks to prevent the company from encountering any lawsuits.

4. Company culture, mission, vision, and values development. Setting the vision, mission, and values is extremely important, as these help create the company’s culture and establish objectives and goals that help employees navigate the organization. Unfortunately, many companies lack these core components in the early-stages as the founding team is usually too occupied with other things. 

5. Performance / OKR / KPI appraisal and compensation structure. Compensation and performance reviews are resource-intensive but nonetheless critical components of any growing startup. 

6. Design effective training and development programs. At a certain scale, a startup doesn’t necessarily need to go outside to seek out talents. Instead, they could facilitate internal training to upskill existing talents and cultivate leaders from within. However, many founders are not experienced in properly assessing employee capabilities and designing training programs for them.

The different type of HRs

So, you’ve started to face some HR issues as your company has grown bigger and have decided to hire a professional to give you some peace of mind. Actually, there are two types of HR professionals that you most often see in early-stage startups.

HR coordinator: This role takes on broader duties and responsibilities, generally encompassing the recruitment, retention, training, management, and development of employees; legal issues concerning employment; and salaries and benefits design. 

Recruiter: Given the critical nature and time intensive nature of talent sourcing, recruiters are often brought in separately to specialize in building a strong pool of candidates for hiring managers to choose from. The scope of their responsibilities include understanding the organizations’ recruitment needs, creating accurate job descriptions, posting job descriptions in different channels, and even attending career fairs or recruiting events to source for candidates. They also conduct the initial screening interviews before passing the candidate along to the hiring manager, while also managing the job offer process and onboarding.  

There’s no doubt you will need an HR professional in your organization at some point. If you have strong hiring needs, and if budget allows, it is best to have at least one HR and one recruiter in an ideal HR team. But if the budget only allows the organization to hire one, then you should try to look for a candidate with a multi-tasking gene—that is an HR coordinator with a knack for marketing and sales, which are critical for acquiring talent in a competitive industry, or a recruiter with solid interpersonal communication skills, which will often be used internally for talent management and development. 

Choosing one or the other is contingent upon the individual needs of each startup. Nevertheless, no founder wants to be brought down by back office operations. Although certainly an investment upfront, hiring a high quality HR professional can actually save a founder a lot of time, resources, and headaches, particularly those on a hyper-growth trajectory.

【If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with AI / IoT, Blockchain / DeFi, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.】

Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash