互聯網大潮中 老齡化的臺灣科技業亟待轉型

TAIPEI, Taiwan — With its offices sporting wood flooring, a roof painted bright orange and conference rooms named after target markets in Southeast Asia, AppWorks, one of Taiwan’s few start-up accelerators, has the look and feel of the American counterparts it’s modeled on.

臺灣台北——作爲臺灣少數幾家創業加速器之一，之初創投(AppWorks)的辦公室特意鋪了木地板，屋頂刷成亮橙色，會議室是以東南亞的目標市場命名的。這讓它在視覺和給人的感覺上，都和它所效仿的美國創業加速器類似。

But its founder, Jamie Lin, 37, does not sound much like the optimistic entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Instead, he is glum about the future for Taiwan’s tech industry.

但其創始人林之晨(Jamie Lin)的語氣，卻不太像硅谷那些樂觀的企業家。相反，37歲的他對臺灣科技行業的未來感到擔憂。

“It’s like you’re riding on the Titanic, and you know it’s going to hit an iceberg, and you’re trying to turn the rudder, but you know it’s not turning fast enough,” he said in a recent interview.

“就像坐在‘泰坦尼克號’上，知道它會撞上冰山，努力想要轉舵，但卻知道舵轉得不夠快，”他在最近接受採訪時說。

Five years ago, Taiwan’s tech industry was riding high. The device maker HTC had surpassed Apple to become the largest smartphone vendor in the United States, while the computer company Acer had leapfrogged Dell to become the world’s second-largest personal computer maker. Such successes helped lift Taiwan’s economy, building on the country’s longtime work on computer chips and moving the island nation into its next phase as a tech power.

五年前，臺灣的科技行業正是春風得意的時候。宏達國際電子股份有限公司(HTC)取代蘋果，成爲美國最大的智能手機賣家，計算機公司宏碁(Acer)則超越戴爾(Dell)，成爲全球第二大個人電腦生產商。這種成功是建立在臺灣對計算機芯片的長期投入上的。它們幫助提振了臺灣的經濟，讓這個島國以科技大國的地位進入了下一階段。

That trajectory has turned. Last year, share prices of the computer makers Acer and Asustek plummeted 43 percent and 22 percent as the PC market sagged, while HTC plunged 45 percent. Taiwan electronics exports have been falling since February 2015, and in the third quarter, the country’s gross domestic product contracted partly because of weakness in the tech sector.

但這一軌跡出現了偏轉。去年，隨着個人電腦市場的衰落，電腦生產商宏碁和華碩(Asustek)的股價分別跌落43%和22%，HTC股價則大跌45%。自2015年2月以來，臺灣的電子產品出口持續下滑。其三季度國內生產總值減少，在一定程度上也是因爲科技領域的疲軟。

As voters head to the polls to choose Taiwan’s new president this weekend, a rare point of agreement between the island’s fractious political parties is that the tech industry needs help. Just days before the election four years ago, major Taiwan tech figures took to television to argue that current President Ma Ying-jeou’s policies of improving relations with China would lift the industry.

在選民將於本週末前往投票點選出臺灣的下一任總統之際，島內明爭暗鬥的各政黨罕見地達成了一點共識，即科技行業需要幫助。四年前，就在離選舉只剩幾天時，臺灣科技業的重要人物走上電視，稱現任總統馬英九(Ma Ying-jeou)改善與大陸關係的政策將提振科技業。

Yet rising competition from Chinese manufacturers and slowing growth there has had a mixed impact on Taiwan tech since. With the Democratic Progressive Party’s Tsai Ing-wen — who polls say is likely to win a decisive victory — vowing to renew Taiwanese innovation and build out a new tech hub here, a key part of Taiwan’s immediate political future depends on whether it can be turned around.

但在那之後，與大陸製造商的競爭與日俱增，大陸的增長也日漸放緩，這給臺灣科技業帶來了複雜的影響。在民進黨(Democratic Progressive Party)候選人蔡英文(Tsai Ing-wen)——民調稱她可能會獲得大勝——承諾要恢復臺灣的創新，並將其打造成新的科技中心的情況下，臺灣近期政治前途中的一個關鍵部分，有賴於科技行業能否有所好轉。

Taiwan’s tech problem, as Mr. Lin sees it, is the result of a culture and government that have failed to generate the talent and flexibility to move beyond the manufacturing prowess that made the island a tech hub in the 1980s and 1990s and forward to the software and Internet industries driving Silicon Valley’s current boom. The dilemma became apparent to him in 2009 when he saw a commercial for Apple’s iPhone.

在林之晨看來，臺灣科技行業的問題是文化和政府造成的。它們未能帶來人才和靈活性，讓臺灣不再滿足於製造業的實力，進入軟件和互聯網行業，在上世紀八九十年代，臺灣就是靠製造業成爲科技中心的。推動硅谷當前的繁榮的，正是軟件和互聯網行業。對他而言，這一困境在2009年時變得頗爲明顯。當時，他看到了蘋果iPhone的一支廣告。

“The commercial said whatever you want to do, there’s an app for that,” Mr. Lin said. “Immediately I realized that’s the end of Taiwan. We’re so good at making cheap computers and phones, but we’re so bad at making an app for anything.”

“廣告上說，無論想做什麼，都有一款應用適合你，”林之晨說。“我立馬意識到臺灣完了。我們非常擅長製造廉價電腦和手機，卻非常不擅長開發應用。”

Taiwan’s tech industry is rooted in a conservative business culture built around a now-aging first generation of high-tech industrialists, critics said. Unlike Silicon Valley, which has the 31-year-old Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and China, which has the 44-year-old Tencent founder Pony Ma, Taiwan’s tech leadership includes Morris Chang, 84, of the chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, and Terry Gou, 65, the founder of Foxconn, the Taiwan-based contract manufacturer.

批評人士稱，臺灣科技行業根植於一種保守的商業文化。這種文化是圍繞現已日漸年邁的第一代高科技工業家建立起來的。硅谷有31歲的Facebook首席執行官馬克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)，大陸有44歲的騰訊創始人馬化騰。不同於硅谷和大陸，臺灣的科技領袖卻是84歲的芯片廠商臺灣積體電路製造股份有限公司(Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation)創始人張忠謀(Morris Chang)，和總部位於臺灣的代工製造商富士康(Foxconn)創始人、65歲的郭臺銘(Terry Gou)等人。

That has solidified a “survival mentality” unsuited to innovation, with tech executives unwilling to spend on the marketing and design that could set their firms apart from competitors, said Willy Shih, a professor at Harvard Business School who studies Taiwan’s tech companies.

哈佛商學院(Harvard Business School)研究臺灣科技公司的史兆威(Willy Shih)教授表示，這加強了一種不適於創新的“求生心態”，使得科技公司高管不願在市場營銷和設計上做投資，而那纔是企業與競爭對手拉開差距的辦法。

One example of that philosophy was on display recently at Silicon Power, which produces branded portable hard drives and USB drives. When the company, based in the affluent riverside neighborhood of Neihu in Taipei, received a flood of orders ahead of Christmas last year, it sent employees responsible for marketing, design and sales — all key to building a brand — to the factory floor, according to one employee, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak about the policy.

這方面的最新的例子是生產品牌移動硬盤和USB驅動器的廣穎電通(Silicon Power)。該公司坐落於臺北富裕的濱河社區內湖區，它在去年聖誕節前夕接到大批訂單後，將負責市場營銷、設計和銷售的員工——打造品牌的關鍵角色——都派到車間工作，該消息由一名公司員工透露。這位員工拒絕透露姓名，因爲他沒被授權談論這項政策。

Yvonne Chang, a Silicon Power spokeswoman, said the move was meant to improve communication between office workers and the factory, not to cut costs. An internal email announcing the plan, however, called for an “emergency mobilization” of employees to help on the manufacturing “front lines.”

廣穎電通發言人伊馮娜·張(Yvonne Chang)表示，公司採取這項措施，意在加強辦公室員工和車間員工之間的交流，不是爲了降低成本。但是一封宣佈該計劃的內部郵件卻呼籲員工“緊急動員”，去“第一線”幫助生產。

Some of Taiwan’s larger tech companies have suffered from a similar philosophy. HTC did not put enough emphasis on branding, Mr. Shih said, adding that Acer failed to adequately transfer to mobile devices as the personal computer market sagged. Many of the Taiwanese companies are now beholden to bigger branded companies, mostly in the United States, for computers, servers and smartphones.

臺灣一些規模比較大的科技企業也受困於類似的理念。史兆威認爲HTC對品牌塑造不夠重視，他還表示，隨着個人電腦市場萎縮，宏碁沒能及時轉向移動設備領域。在計算機、服務器和智能手機行業，很多臺灣企業現在都要受制於更知名的品牌公司，後者大多是美國企業。

Acer and HTC did not respond to requests for comment. Nick Wu, the chief financial officer of Asustek, said the company anticipated the shifts in the industry and was working to expand into robotics, as well as computing devices for the home and car.

宏碁和HTC沒有迴應時報的置評請求。華碩首席財務官吳長榮(Nick Wu)表示，華碩之前預見到了這種行業轉型，它正努力進入機器人制造領域，也在研發家用和車用計算設備。

“Transition is not something that can be completed overnight,” Mr. Wu said. “It takes strategic planning and solid execution, especially when our industry is undergoing a massive paradigm shift.”

“轉型不是一夜之間就能實現的，”吳長榮說。“需要制定戰略規劃，需要紮實的執行，在我們的行業正經歷根本性巨大轉變的時期，尤其如此。”

Taiwan’s entrepreneurial scene, meanwhile, is growing but remains small. Many of those trying to start new companies said they had often run into the conservative mind-set that shunts younger people into risk-averse positions at established companies. Entrepreneurs also have to grapple with a maze of regulations that have restricted online payment platforms and limited tech start-ups’ ability to list in Taiwan.

與此同時，臺灣創業公司作爲整體儘管持續增長，但規模依然很小。正在努力創立新公司的人士有不少都表示，他們常常因人們的保守觀念而碰壁，保守觀念使得年輕人傾向於規避風險，選擇成熟企業的安穩職位，而非加入創業公司。創業者還不得不應對複雜的規章制度，這些規章會限制網上支付平臺的使用，也限制科技企業在臺灣上市的機會。

Mr. Lin of AppWorks recalled a moment last year when he and four others in the tech industry met with 30 legislators to work on a law to regulate online payments like PayPal. Of the legislators in the room, only a few had ever used any form of online payment platform.

之初創投的林之晨回憶，去年他和另外四位科技行業人士曾與30名立法委員會面，就一項管控PayPal等網上支付工具的法律進行磋商。在座的立法委員中，只有少數幾位曾經使用過網上支付平臺的服務。

“If none of them has used it, what rights do they have to criticize it or say it’s not useful?” he said. “You have to at least do your homework.”

“如果他們都沒用過，有什麼權利批評它，或去說它沒有用？”他說。“你至少得做些瞭解吧。”

Some organizations are working to jump-start the tech industry. Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute, or I.T.R.I., a government-sponsored group that supports and builds out new tech companies, recently began spinning off more companies early, whereas before it had been doing more to aid extant firms, according to a general director, Stephen Su.

臺灣也有一些機構正竭力助推科技行業，由政府資助的工業技術研究院(ITRI)旨在支持和打造新科技企業。該院產業經濟與趨勢研究中心主任蘇孟宗(Stephen Su)表示，最近他們開始更多地孵化早期創業公司，之前則主要是給已經發展起來的公司提供支持。

The institute is also spearheading an initiative to link Taiwanese companies and offer their services to hardware start-ups in places like Silicon Valley that are in need of quick prototyping and manufacturing, with the aim of bringing in new business from the United States. And the organization has created a research group to work on regulatory problems.

工業技術研究院也在帶頭倡議，讓臺灣企業與外界加強合作，給硅谷等地需要快速提供樣品和加工能力的硬件創業公司提供服務，以便從美國帶來新的商業機會。該機構還創建了一個研究小組，專門研究監管方面的問題。

Anita Huang, the head of Taiwan Startup Stadium, an initiative started by the government to lift start-up funding and training, said there was a need for more role models to show the way for aspiring entrepreneurs. She pointed to one of Taiwan’s best-funded start-ups, Gogoro, as an example.

臺灣創新競技場(Taiwan Startup Stadium)是由政府創立的倡導機構，旨在爲創業公司提供融資和培訓服務。其負責人黃蕙雯(Anita Huang)表示，臺灣需要更多的創業榜樣，給有抱負的創業者帶路。她說在這方面，臺灣融資狀況最好的創業公司睿能新動力(Gogoro)就是個例子。

Co-founded in 2011 by Horace Luke, a former HTC executive, Gogoro has raised $180 million and produces scooters powered by replaceable batteries stored at stations around Taipei. The company grew to more than 600 employees in 2015, up from 15 in 2011.

睿能是HTC前高管陸學森(Horace Luke)在2011年與人聯合創立的公司，目前已經融資1.8億美元，它主要生產由可更換電池供電的電動車，這些電池在遍及臺北的交換站充電。該公司的員工已經從2011年的15人增長到2015年的600多人。

Mr. Luke said his goal was to avoid relying on larger companies and to build a platform by offering services and devices based around the replaceable battery stations. Because of his strong local reputation, Mr. Luke said he had been given freedom by investors to run the company as he wanted. He said he encouraged employees, many of whom are under 40, to shun short-term considerations in favor of longer-term innovation.

陸學森表示，他的目標是避免依賴更大的公司，通過提供基於電池替換站實現的服務和設備，打造一個獨立的平臺。因爲在當地頗有名聲，陸學森表示投資者給了他比較大的自由，可以按照自己的意願經營這個公司。他說他鼓勵自己的員工——有不少都在40歲以下——避免做短線考量，而要做長遠的創新。

Mr. Luke said Taiwan’s lack of urgency around tech was receding. In the last 18 months, an “alarm bell went off” over the tech scene, he said. “Business leaders here, everyone is talking about that,” he said. “ Awareness is the first step to a correction.”

陸學森表示，臺灣科技界缺乏緊迫感這一點正在有所改變。他說，在過去的一年半里，科技界“響起了警鐘”。“這裏的商業領袖都在談論這一點，”他說。“意識到問題的存在，是進行修正的第一步。”