Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times: Asian Innovation, Inclusion, and Impact during COVID-19

ASIA BUSINESS COUNCIL HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 4 4 Fubon Group (Taiwan) Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times Indeed, aside from taking part in the IEFS, Taiwan Mobile’s response to COVID-19 has included offering free digital entertainment for people under quarantine and free internet services to students who were learning from home. For the former, streaming services were offered to tens of thousands of people in quarantine or self-isolation, through myVideo, or Taiwan’s Netflix, and myMusic, which is Taiwan’s Spotify. Lin is also particularly proud of the 15 days of free internet services provided to students attending school remotely. This was especially impactful for underprivileged students who might not otherwise have had access to the internet. Future Outlook On the future of IEFS, although 95 percent of the system has been built, Lin says that there are still quality-of-life tweaks that can be made to make the lives of government officials or those under quarantine easier. While he does not anticipate the need for an IEFS 2.0, there are always minor adjustments that can be made for further improvement. In fact, with an effective IEFS in place and a remarkably low number of COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, Lin is focused on building “the next star or stars in the company which would continue to power growth for the next five to 10 years.” Lin sees COVID-19 as having benefitted Taiwan Mobile in a sense because its subsidiary Momo is the leading B2C e-commerce firm in Taiwan. During the pandemic, Momo’s growth accelerated and it was able to solidify its market- leading position. While the telecoms business is a cash cow for Taiwan Mobile and the e-commerce business is a rising star for now, Lin believes that Momo will also become a cash cow in time, resulting in the need for yet another “star” to provide growth momentum. Of course, this is not to say that there is no room for existing businesses. Taiwan Mobile will continue to provide fast and stable telecommunication services, as well as video conferencing, online entertainment, and broadband services. It also plans to provide 5G transformation solutions for more enterprises in the future. On the other hand, Momo will continue to enhance the consumer experience. For example, it has launched voice search in mobile shopping services and plans to optimize last-mile delivery by limiting delivery time to six hours and completing 30 satellite warehouses by the end of 2021. For the wider Fubon Group, the plan is to incorporate notifiable disease-related protection to existing insurance products and to develop insurance policies to provide protection against the risk of business suspension. This would build on the fixed-term health insurance plan for notifiable diseases launched by Fubon In the words of Lin, “once you have this, you need to choose the right technology to do it; for us, using cell towers to triangulate a person’s position struck the right balance between respecting privacy and promoting public health. In contrast to Hong Kong’s tracking bracelets, the IEFS system allows for greater privacy...