國立臺灣大學管理學院企業管理碩士專班 碩士論文
Global MBA College of Management National Taiwan University
Master Thesis
SpeakTaiwan.com: 語言，人才，商品和信息市場
SpeakTaiwan.com: a language, talent, goods, and information marketplace
費玉清
Jamison K. Sheffer
指導教授：曹承礎
Advisor: Dr. Tim Chou
中華民國
108年1月
January, 2019
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by Jamison K. Sheffer All rights reserved.
Abstract
Taiwan is currently missing a de facto website for English classifieds. Taiwan is also missing a central website for the sharing of information. This paper analyzes the Private Tutoring, English Teaching, Job Search & Talent Acquisition, General Classifieds, and Information &
Knowledge Sharing markets in Taiwan. It shows the market fragmentation that has resulted from the lack of user focus, and the lack of refined search functions. This paper proposes to create a single website that will rectify these issues, and suggests ways of promoting this website and moving it to profitability.
Dedication
To my beloved wife, Amanda.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Professor Miriam Garvi for her initial help and direction. I would like to thank Dr. Tim Chou for his continued insight and guidance. I would like to thank all of the staff at NTU, especially those in the GMBA, for their incredible and diverse program. I would like to thank Taiwan for being a bastion of freedom, independent thought, education, and democracy in Asia. Finally, I would like to thank my mother.
Table of Contents
Copyright 2
Abstract 3
Dedication 4
Acknowledgements 5
Glossary of Terms 10
Executive Summary 11
Introduction 12
Market Analysis 14
Private Tutoring Market Analysis 15
Market Definition 15
Market Size, Segmentation, and Leaders 16
Online Classifieds 16
Tealit 16
Alternatives 18
ESL Dewey 18
Taiwan English 19
Online Tutoring 19
VIPKID 19
Alternatives 20
Language Marketplace 20
italki 20
Alternatives 20
Market Summary 21
English Teaching Market Analysis 22
Market Definition 22
Market Size, Segmentation, and Leaders 23
Online Classifieds 23
Tealit 23
Alternatives 24
ESL Dewey 24
Teach Taiwan 25
Facebook 25
Substitute Teaching 25
Job Search & Talent Acquisition Market Analysis 27
Market Definition 27
Market Size, Segmentation, and Leaders 27
Online Classifieds 27
Tealit 27
Contact Taiwan 28
Alternatives 30
Facebook 30
General Classifieds Market Analysis 32
Market Definition 32
Market Size, Segmentation, and Leaders 33
Items Classifieds 33
Craigslist. 33
Facebook 33
Forumosa 35
Housing Classifieds 35
Rent 591 35
Facebook 36
Vehicle Classifieds 36
Market Summary 37
Information & Knowledge Sharing Market Analysis 38
Market Definition 38
Market Size, Segmentation, and Leaders 38
Online Information Sources 38
Facebook 38
Reddit.com/r/taiwan 39
Tealit Articles 40
Just Landed 41
Market Summary 41
Market Research Conclusion 41
Company Products, Services, and Features 42
Our Services and Features 42
At Launch 43
Substitute Teachers 44
Job Search 45
Classifieds 45
Wiki 45
Teacher Aids 47
Dual Language Interface 47
Future Projects 47
Tutor Assistance 47
Translation Services 48
Ratings 48
BuXiban Review 49
Background Check Assistance 49
Late-Game Projects 49
International Schools 49
Marketing Strategy 50
Free 50
Current Websites 50
Buxibans 50
Taiwanese Companies 51
Taiwan Government 51
Taiwan’s Web Services 51
News Sources 51
Local Universities 51
Emulate The Local Competition 52
Marketing Strategy Summary 52
Objectives 53
First Year 53
Market Research 53
Website Development 53
Market Share 53
Second Year Objectives 54
Profitability 54
Three Years and Further Objectives 54
Key Concerns and Challenges 55
Market Share 55
Further Fragmentation 55
Organizational Management 56
Wiki 56
Wiki Moderation 56
Financial Considerations 57
Free To Use 57
Five Year Plan 58
Income 58
Affiliate Links & Product Referral Bonuses 58
Advertisement Revenue 58
Activity-Based Language Learning 59
Featured Classifieds 59
Expenses 60
Employees 60
Domain Name 60
Server Virtualization 61
Corporate Tax Rate 61
Pension Fund 61
National Health Insurance 61
Labor Insurance 61
Office Space 62
Website Development 62
Database Development 62
Content Management Systems 62
CRM 62
Accounting 63
Mobile Phone & Internet 63
Computers 63
Cloud Backups 63
SEO 63
Merchant Services 64
Residency 64
Five Year Plan Spreadsheet (All $ in TWD) 65
Fire Year Plan Summary 66
Conclusion 67
References 68
Glossary of Terms
● Buxiban
o The Romanization of the Chinese characters 補習班
▪ Pinyin: bǔxíbān
▪ Zhuyin: ㄅㄨˇ ㄒㄧˊ ㄅㄢ
o Buxibans are commonly referred to as “cram schools” within Taiwan.
o Buxibans are most commonly after school programs that provide food, homework assistance, and English teachers to Taiwanese students.
o Buxibans are often used in lieu of daycare.
Executive Summary
Taiwan is a wonderful place to live. Taiwan is full of kind people, has a strong economy, wonderful healthcare, excellent mass-transit, and ample opportunities for employment.
Taiwan’s economy is transitioning from a manufacturing economy to one of skilled labor.
Taiwan is also hoping to become an international hub akin to Singapore and Hong Kong.
With such assets and aspirations, Taiwan is in need of a centralized website for its foreign visitors and workforce.
SpeakTaiwan.com would be a central website, akin to a better version of craigslist. It would satisfy demands in the Private Tutoring, English Teaching, Job Search & Talent Acquisition, General Classifieds, and Information & Knowledge Sharing markets in Taiwan.
There is clear evidence of market fragmentation that has resulted from the lack of user focus, and the absence of refined search functions. These less than ideal current market alternatives are easily replaceable.
The services provided by SpeakTaiwan.com will benefit foreigners residing in or moving to Taiwan. It will also benefit Taiwanese corporations, public schools, and buxibans looking to hire foreign talent. SpeakTaiwan.com will help pair open positions and qualified applicants. SpeakTaiwan.com will boast a Taiwan-specific wiki, full of places to visit and things to purchase. The wiki will address topics such as how to get an ARC, a bank account, health insurance, and many other topics of interest to new residents. Eventually, we hope to be the de facto landing page of the expatriate community in Taiwan.
SpeakTaiwan.com will work with our users to reach non-intrusive forms of revenue generation, such as referral revenue, banner advertisements, sponsored content, featured classifieds, tutoring partnerships, and the solicitation of donations.
Introduction
When I first applied to the GMBA program at NTU, my wife, Amanda, and I discussed the employment possibilities in Taiwan. Amanda and I were moving to Taiwan from our home in Utah. Amanda is a fully credentialed Biology teacher in Utah. Prior to our move to Taiwan, Amanda had taught 7th grade Biology for two years. Amanda voiced concerns over working full-time in a foreign country, and expressed her desire to research part-time employment opportunities in Taiwan. We found an overload of available, but confusing, information.
Although there were many different websites, none were very helpful. They were awkward, redundant and outdated, irrespective of western preferences and expectations. We had no idea if these websites and job listings were legitimate, and were concerned about applying for a job listed on such a website. Many of the job listings were already filled, or the requirements were not listed properly. There were many positions seeking English speakers that were listed in Chinese. Clearly, there was a problem connecting supply and demand.
I have a B.A. in English, and am well qualified to teach the English language. I asked my friends and classmates where to find tutoring jobs. They informed me of the market leader, Tealit, a website where Tutors could post classifieds. I visited the website and found that there was an overabundance of available teachers, and that I would most likely never receive any interest in my advertisement.
This experience left me wondering if there was a better way to connect tutors and pupils. I wondered how many of the advertisements on websites such as Tealit were
worthwhile. What I realized is that there is a very large disconnect between those who wished to work in Taiwan, and those in Taiwan who wished to hire foreign talent.
The idea of SpeakTaiwan.com has evolved since its inception. It has both grown and become more refined. It started with my desire to simply address the needs in the tutoring market. I was excruciatingly aware of the difficulties associated with these websites. I began by researching all sites that used English and would likely be accessible to the foreign market. It became painfully clear that they all suffered from the same limiting issues. I realized that it was possible to address these needs with a single website.
Market Analysis
Many non-native Chinese speakers will never learn to read or write Chinese. These resident aliens rely on English classifieds to conduct both professional and personal business. When Taiwanese businesses desire to hire foreign employees, they use English classifieds to attract skilled talent. Taiwanese schools and buxibans desire to hire native English speakers, and also use English classifieds to advertise their openings.
Our proposed website, SpeakTaiwan.com serves multiple markets, and therefore required the analysis of these markets. They are:
1. The Private Tutoring Market in Taiwan 2. The English Teaching Market in Taiwan
3. The Job Search & Talent Acquisition Market in Taiwan 4. The General Classifieds Market in Taiwan
5. The Information & Knowledge Sharing Market in Taiwan.
These markets are highly fragmented but not saturated. There are many players but they all share obvious flaws. There are multitudes of unmet needs, and a significant lack of viable alternatives. There is an opportunity to create a workable site that addresses the needs of each of these markets, thereby acquiring a majority market share.
Private Tutoring Market Analysis
The realization that the needs for this market were not being met occurred as I was walking with my wife, Amanda. A man approached us and asked if we would be willing to tutor his children in English. He offered to pay us well. This man knew nothing about us, and had presumably overheard Amanda and I conversing in English. Yet, he was willing to offer us the most important job of teaching his children. Clearly this was a man who did not have viable alternatives.
As I pondered this man’s dilemma, I realized that there are many individuals currently living in Taiwan, possessing valuable language skills, who would be happy to become private language tutors if given the opportunity. I believe that within the local population there is an untapped resource of knowledge, skills, and talents. This vast resource pool is not limited to teaching languages. SpeakTaiwan.com believes that tutoring music, arts, sports, and other skill based activities is a very lucrative and unrealized market. Individuals need suitable venues whereby they might share their talents.
Market Definition
The private tutoring market is defined as all learning that takes place outside of public schools and buxibans. This market is not limited to English language tutoring. It can include any spoken language and any learned skill. Things such as learning to play the violin or learning to swim could be included in the realm of the private tutoring market.
Market Size, Segmentation, and Leaders Online Classifieds
A classified is a listing created by someone looking to buy or sell a specific product or service. With the rise of the internet, many would-be tutors post to online classifieds in an effort to attract students.
Tealit
Tealit is currently Taiwan’s market leader for private tutoring. It offers classifieds for tutors and tutoring jobs. Tealit is neither intuitive nor user friendly. Tealit updated its website in March of 2018, but its backend remains archaic. At present, it only offers a basic keyword search of its classifieds, with no way to filter results. It therefore suffers from what I call
“front-page weakness”. A lack of a quality search function means that those tutors who were listed most recently receive the most attention. This is shown in my market research.
In an effort to track the amount of business done by Tealit, I have frequented their website, and tracked the posted classifieds. Each time I visited the Tealit website, I would save a copy of the Teaching Jobs, Teachers, Tutoring Jobs, and Tutors webpages. By so doing, I was able to track the new jobs posted, the new teachers and tutors posted, and the teachers and tutors who chose to remove their information.
Tealit’s lack of a search function is a far greater problem when combined with the number of available tutors. As of Jan 11th 2019, there are 3283 tutor classifieds on their website.1 Each classified contains a picture, biographical information, and a summary of the available tutor. However, none of this information is filterable or easily searchable. If a parent is looking for a female tutor available Thursday afternoons, they have to click through 3283 listings themselves. At present there is no way to filter the results.
What I found is that those tutors who were listed on the front page were far more likely to remove their postings (most likely after receiving a tutoring job offer) than those who were listed on the later pages. I had a tutoring listing posted on this website for many months, and can attest that the most attention comes from being on the front page. Once my classified moved to later pages, job offers became much more infrequent.
The greatest proof that the website is failing to serve the purpose for which it is designed is the current tutoring jobs classifieds. At present there are 3 tutoring jobs posted as available.2 When I first visited the website, there were 4 tutoring jobs available.
Tealit Tutoring Jobs (November 28, 2018)
3
The image above shows the tutoring jobs as of November 28th. The image below shows the tutoring jobs as of Jan 11th, 2019. The tutoring job #2934 has remained unfilled throughout that entire time. This is an unmet need despite the incredible amount of willing talent.
Tealit Tutoring Jobs (January 11, 2019)
4
There should be zero tutoring jobs available when you have 3283 available tutors. Clearly it is easier to make a classified posting than try and sort through endless personal classifieds without a decent search or filter function. Based on my research, over the course of two months only 8 tutors found work by posting a tutoring classified, while 10 tutoring jobs were filled by responding directly to a tutoring job classified.
It is possible that Tealit’s motivations behind their lack of a functional search are selfish. The more time people spend on their site, the more ad revenue they receive. It is also possible that they do not want to change their current archaic system, and are simply victims to a backend that does not allow for filtering and searching. Either way, their position as Taiwan’s market leader is vulnerable.
Alternatives ESL Dewey
As of Jan 11 2019, ESL Dewey website had 3164 open positions for tutors and English teachers.5 This website does not filter tutoring, buxiban, and public schools separately, so there will be overlap. This website also does not offer a real search function.
Taiwan English
Taiwan English has not been updated since 2010. However, there are new profiles being created on its language exchange every month. Even though it is lacking in features and updates, people still use the website because of a lack of useful alternatives.
Online Tutoring
A large amount of private tutoring takes place online. The Chinese tutoring business is worth mentioning due to its proximity and size. It is also worth mentioning due to its potential to compete for talented tutors. As of 2017, The English teaching market in China was valued at over $70 billion USD.6 As of January 2018, the online marketplace accounted for $4.5 Billion USD of the total market.7 Without online tutoring, places such as China would otherwise find themselves in the unenviable position of trying to fill tutoring needs with local talent; an impossible task.
On the American side, the realization that one could have a marketable skill, without requiring anything other than being a native speaker, has driven many low-skilled and money hungry “tutors” into these online marketplaces.
VIPKID
VIPKID is the market leader in China. It is also the market leader worldwide in terms of attracting and paying teachers. VIPKID offers a very specific function, using native English speakers to teach Chinese children aged five to twelve years old. VIPKID advertises itself as paying its teachers anywhere from $14-22/hour.8
Since May 2014, VIPKID has raised over $825 Million USD in funding.9 In 2018, VIPKID closed a deal for $500 Million USD in funding, at a 3 Billion dollar evaluation, despite posting losses of over $174 Million USD.10
Alternatives
VIPKID is not alone in this market. There is China-based dadaabc, China-based Tutorjr and Taiwan-based Tutorabc who are both owned by the iTutorGroup, among many others.11 The iTutorGroup was recently valued at $2 Billion USD.12 All of these try to accomplish the same thing; hiring foreign teachers to virtually tutor domestic clients. They work as middle men, providing curriculum, hiring talent, processing payments, and dispensing salaries. They are all essentially offering the same product, but working to find a competitive advantage.
Language Marketplace
These companies work by providing the means for language teachers and learners to come together in a relatively free marketplace. Tutors can set their own rates, and the payments are handled through the website. Tutors can post videos of themselves, and language learners can pay for “introductory” sessions with a tutor for a lower price to gauge compatibility.
italki
The largest of these online language marketplaces is talki.com. To date, they have raised $3 Million USD.13 Italki requires each teacher to post a video of themselves speaking that is free to watch and easily accessible. All prices are listed, and there are no minimums. This could create an issue where qualified teachers are underbid and leave the platform. Italki tries to combat this by allowing students to rate each lesson performed by a teacher, allowing good teachers to gain high reviews.
Alternatives
There are websites such as AmazingTalker14 and SkimaTalk15 that offer nearly identical platforms to italki. SkimaTalk has the added complexity of using a platform currency called
“coins” rather than dealing with currency fluctuations. A centralized currency for an
international marketplace is an interesting idea. It highlights one of the issues regarding targeting the entire world as your market.
Market Summary
Clearly, the current market is extremely fragmented with a few clear leaders. The classified marketplace seems to be full of unmet wants and needs. However, such market confusion actually plays into our company’s strength. The reason for the confusion is the identical product being offered by each company. SpeakTaiwan.com plans to offer a much better classifieds experience. This market is ripe for “blue ocean strategy” in that:
Competition should not occupy the center of strategic thinking. Too many companies let competition drive their strategies. What blue ocean strategy brings to life, however, is that this focus on the competition all too often keeps companies anchored in the red ocean. It puts the competition, not the customer, at the core of strategy. As a result, companies’ time and attention get focused on benchmarking rivals and responding to their strategic moves, rather than on understanding how to deliver a leap in value to buyers which is not the same thing.
16SpeakTaiwan.com will place emphasis on the user experience, rather than trying to match our competitors.
English Teaching Market Analysis
Taiwan is home to nearly countless buxibans (補習班 ). They seem to dot every street corner, and are almost as common a sight as 7-11. Buxibans are commonly referred to as “cram schools” within Taiwan. Taiwan’s seeming obsession with buxibans serves many distinct purposes for the parents who spend large amounts of money sending their children to these schools.
Buxibans commonly offer after school programs that provide food, homework assistance, and English teachers to Taiwanese students. Because of this, buxibans are often used in lieu of daycare. Nearly every buxiban is looking to hire a native English speaker to teach its children. English teaching is not limited to buxibans. Many public schools are also looking to hire foreign teaching talent in Taiwan.
There are obvious differences between the two kinds of teachers. Language teachers at buxibans are often paid hourly rather than the salary paid to public school teachers. Public schools require teaching credentials while buxibans only prefer them. However, there are more similarities between these teachers than differences. Also, the teachers tend to frequent similar websites when searching for employment.
I believe that many of these schools would find far greater success by approaching schools of education across American college campuses. However, my beliefs aren’t going to change market behavior. Therefore, it is important to study how most current schools recruit their foreign talent.
Market Definition
All of these schools and buxibans that are looking to hire foreign talent are fighting a
zero-sum game. If a buxiban attracts a teacher, very seldom can another school use that same
teacher. Each school must find, attract, and hire qualified teachers for their students. This can be difficult to do, especially if qualified teachers are unfamiliar with teaching abroad.
Market Size, Segmentation, and Leaders Online Classifieds
Many buxibans pursue only the established route of posting to Taiwanese websites when searching for new and qualified teachers. While rather uninspired, this method seems to somewhat fulfill their needs.
Tealit
In addition to their tutoring classifieds, Tealit offers teaching classifieds as well. Similar to the tutoring section, there are two different pages for teachers. Their is a “Teaching Jobs Available” section, and a “Teachers Available to Teach” section. Tealit’s Available Teachers section suffers from an even greater amount of information overload than that of the Tutors section.
As of Jan 11 2019, there were 8692 teachers listed on the website.17 This is an impossible number without a proper search function.
Tealit Teachers Available to Teach (January 11, 2019)
18
Also, as of Jan 11 2019 there were 89 teaching jobs listed on the website.19 With 8692 willing teachers, there should be zero available jobs on the website. Clearly, there is a major issue in
Tealit Teaching Jobs Available (January 11, 2019)
20
Tealit has the benefit of being the market leader in Taiwan. Tealit has the most name recognition, and people tend to use it because people recognize it. The great need for tutors creates a market where customers are willing to deal with this difficulty of usage and the frustration it involves.
The Teaching Jobs Available section seem to suffer from the same “front-page weakness” as the tutoring section. The ads listed on the front page seemed to be removed the most quickly. The demand for teachers seems to logically follow the school year. My market research shows around 125 teaching ads were answered from Tealit over the previous month, and an additional 45 available teachers found work via Tealit. It is very possible that these two numbers have overlap.
Alternatives ESL Dewey
As of Jan 11 2019, ESL Dewey website had 3164 open positions for tutors and English teachers.21 This website does not filter tutoring, buxiban, and public schools separately, so there will be overlap.
Teach Taiwan
As of Jan 11 2019, this website had 300 open positions.22 This website tends to post
government positions. This website is unique in that it offers no search function whatsoever.
Craigslist
As of Jan 11 2019, there are 26 education positions listed on Craigslist.23 Craigslist isn’t nearly as popular in Taiwan as it is in the United States of America, but 26 is still a lot of open positions. Craigslist offers a very basic keyword search function.
Facebook is awash with alternatives. All membership information is as of Jan 11 2019.
The group Teaching English in Taiwan has 7,905 members.24 The group Taiwan English Teaching Jobs has 11,399 members.25 The group Taiwan English Teacher Job Openings has 19,886 members.26 I found an additional ten groups with a minimum of 5,000 members each.
Clearly, Facebook offers a fragmented market.
Facebook does not order post chronologically, nor does it offer a real search function.
The fact that these groups have so many members is clearly indicative of the lack of viable alternatives.
Substitute Teaching
Buxiban teachers currently face a real dilemma if they get sick. Taiwan is not a country that believes in sick days or paid time off. Currently, employers only have to pay sick employees 50% of their regular pay if they miss work due to illness.27 Not only that, but buxiban
teachers often have to find their own substitute teachers, and pay them out of pocket.
This does seem to be a short sighted policy, as sick employees coming to work will cause further illness to those around them. These sick employees will all experience a drop in
Regardless of our thoughts on the matter, it seems as if many buxibans do not have a plan in place for replacing sick teachers. It is often the responsibility of the teacher to find a qualified substitute to take their class. The teacher then arranges to pay the substitute them self, rather than the buxiban. This leads to the sick teacher having to negotiate with potential substitutes, confirm their identity, create a lesson plan, and organize payments while sick.
Most teachers tend to go into work sick and infect their young students rather than suffer through the hassle.
The current market offers no central location to find qualified substitute teachers.
Currently, Facebook seems to be the preferred method. Multiple groups have been created trying to address this problem. A quick search on Facebook reveals just a few of the many fragmented groups. Many of the previously listed groups also have frequent posts from teachers looking for substitutes, and substitutes negotiating a proper hourly rate. The greatest issue here is that when looking for work as a substitute, or when searching for a substitute, one must post to and check each one of these groups.
Market Summary
There is clearly a need for skilled teachers to make themselves available to prospective employers. This fragmented market is ready for a central location to search for and post teaching jobs. Taiwan needs an intuitive user interface system that can pair willing teachers with open positions.
Job Search & Talent Acquisition Market Analysis
Taiwan is moving its developed economy beyond manufacturing, and into high-skill vocations. Many Taiwanese companies are looking to hire foreign talent, but have no idea where to acquire it. The government has even created a program, Contact Taiwan, to try and pair talented employees with open positions.
Market Definition
This market is defined as anyone looking for gainful non-teaching employment in Taiwan, or any non-teaching Taiwanese company wishing to hire an employee. While
SpeakTaiwan.com’s primary focus would be pairing foreign talent with domestic needs, it would also welcome classifieds targeting native Taiwanese employees.
Market Size, Segmentation, and Leaders Online Classifieds
Tealit
Currently, Tealit has 2 non-teaching jobs posted on its website.28 Tealit’s homepage is full of photos of “Thank You” notes sent to them from companies that had previous success using Tealit to hire an employee. Tealit’s layout and design is a testament to its focus on Taiwanese employers, rather than prospective employees. The lack of an intuitive user interface, as well as the lack of any sort of western styling, is very off-putting to those unfamiliar with the site.
Letters of Gratitude from Taiwanese Businesses to Tealit
29
While Tealit had previously been the market leader for employers searching for foreign employees, that title now belongs to Contact Taiwan.
Contact Taiwan
Contact Taiwan is a government sponsored resource, managed by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, designed to pair foreign talent with domestic need in Taiwan.30 Contact Taiwan is excellent about hosting events whereby employers and potential employees can meet. These are hosted at colleges and other locations throughout Taiwan. Applicants can submit their applications in advance for potential employers to search through. Meeting face-to-face can overcome a great deal of translation issues, and reduces online issues of miscommunication. Personalities can be gauged in person, which is a valuable intangible asset to potential employers.
Like Tealit, contact Taiwan is greatly lacking in their searchable database. They offer many jobs, but searching these jobs, and their requirements, is monotonous, time-consuming,
and often futile. While there is a section in each job description asking for languages required, it is not a searchable or filterable option on the website.
Contact Taiwan’s Search
31
Therefore it is entirely possible that an applicant is shown jobs for which they do not have sufficient language ability.
A Contact Taiwan Job Listing
32
Employers lack the ability to quickly and efficiently sort through applicants to find those qualified for their needs.
Contact Taiwan’s Talent Search
33
Employers can do a basic search for location, however location is irrelevant when preferred work location is the real question. Employers can also do a quick language search, but that doesn’t mean anything if the experience doesn’t match up. The website is lacking and leaves both employers and employees unsatisfied.
prospective employees often lack the ability to search through open positions to find those for which they are qualified. In short, it seems that the greatest weakness for Contact Taiwan is a lack of a searchable relational database.
Alternatives
There are many alternatives that offer job listings without any real search function. As of Jan 11 2019, Xpat Jobs had 268 Jobs in Taipei.34 Craigslist had 45 non-teaching jobs listed for Taiwan, which is worth mentioning because every ad has to be posted there specifically.35 Jobs In Taipei listed 1,002 non-teaching jobs in Taipei.36
With the lack of reasonable alternatives, Facebook has quickly become a fragmented battleground where different groups try and serve the same people. Hopeful candidates find themselves joining multiple groups just to be sure they don’t miss a listing. All membership information is as of Jan 11 2019. The group, Non Teaching Jobs in Taiwan, currently has 17,776 members.37 The group Jobs in Taiwan currently has 13,811 members.38 Facebook
does not order post chronologically, nor does it offer a real search function. The fact that these groups have so many members is clearly indicative of the lack of viable alternatives.
Market Summary
This market may be the most fragmented one yet. Furthermore, there is little information on those websites about the benefits of working in Taiwan, or for a Taiwanese company. It is hard to attract foreign talent when they do not understand the benefits offered to them. It is also even more difficult when they are unable to easily search through the posted classifieds.
General Classifieds Market Analysis
Before moving to Taiwan, I was living in the state of Utah, in the United States of America.
Utah and Idaho are unique, because residents of these states tend not to use craigslist.
Craigslist is the online classifieds market leader in most parts of the United States of America. Craigslist averages 50 Billion page views per month.39 However, in the states of Utah and Idaho, residents use a news website called KSL.com for their general classifieds.
KSL.com is even the preferred method to search for cars, pets, and housing.
KSL.com is preferred over craigslist because of its improved search functionality, and better user interface and user experience design. Both Craigslist and KSL.com are free to use, cost nothing, and do nothing more than store data in a central location. KSL.com offers the ability to “feature” advertisements at the top of lists for a standard fee. Craigslist has very little monetization at all.
Craigslist and KSL.com both offer sections for items, housing, and vehicles. I would like to explore those sections within this market.
Market Definition
Classifieds can represent the listing of any sort of good or service. Normally, employment listings are considered classifieds. However, as employment listings constitute such a large part of Taiwan’s classifieds, we have covered them separately.
This market is not only for foreigners or the English speaking community in Taiwan.
SpeakTaiwan.com is designed to be easily accessible in both Chinese and English.
Market Size, Segmentation, and Leaders Items Classifieds
KSL.com General Classified Section
40
Craigslist.
As of Jan 11 2019, Taiwan’s Craigslist had 108 items listed for sale.41 This is worth mentioning because Craigslist is the market leader in the United States. Posting an
advertisement requires the creation of an account. Craigslist advertisements require effort, and there are currently 108 of them in Taiwan.
A lack of viable alternatives leaves many using Facebook as a place to purchase and sell items.
Facebook Marketplace is working very hard to be the centralized classified platform.
However, many people dislike the fact that using this marketplace requires use of the Facebook or messenger app.
Facebook Marketplace
42
Others, finding a lack of success on Facebook’s Marketplace, post to specific groups.
Facebook is a poor alternative as it does not order posts chronologically, nor does it have a proper search function. All membership data is as of Jan 11 2019.
A unique group, Taipei: Buy, Sell, Trade, requires all posts to be made in English. It currently has 43,388 members and averages multiple posts each day.43 A different group, Taiwan: Buy, Sell Trade, currently has 21,242 members.44 These groups exist on Facebook, despite the fact that Facebook Marketplace exists.
Clearly, Facebook Marketplace is not meeting the needs of the people. The ability to ask and answer questions seems to be a large selling point for the groups. I’ve even seen people post their classifieds to teaching groups as in the example below.
Changhua English Teacher’s Group (Facebook)
45
Forumosa
Forumosa, a play on the words forum and Formosa, offers another severely outdated option to post and reply to classifieds.46 It seems to have a small but strong user base.
Housing Classifieds
KSL.com Housing Classifieds
47
Rent 591
When I moved to Taiwan, I needed to find a place to live. NTU does not offer much help for married international students who wish to attend their university. When I came to Taiwan, I
the available houses in my budget.48 I would use my limited Chinese ability to speak with the landlords and ask about the property. I used it because there was not a better option. It isn’t a bad option, but it would be impossible for someone without Chinese language ability.
The group, Rental Apartments in Taiwan, currently has 16,564 members.49 The group, Looking for Roommates or Apartments in Taipei and Taiwan, currently has 29,922 members.50 These groups average 10 to 20 posts per day.
Vehicle Classifieds
KSL.com Vehicle Classifieds
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While here in Taiwan, I tried to purchase a scooter. I asked all of my local Taiwanese friends which website I should use to try and find available second-hand scooters. I also asked my local foreign friends who had purchased vehicles, what website they used to find their scooters. I received many different answers.
I am exactly 200cm tall. I am considered very tall in The United States, and in Taiwan I often feel like a giant. Because of my height, I was interested in finding a larger scooter. I have seen many of the 250cc scooters in Taiwan, and I believed that these would be the most comfortable for me. However, I couldn’t find a site that allowed me to search by engine size!
Scooters were grouped into one category, and larger (600cc+) motorcycles were grouped into another.
After a great deal of time and effort, I eventually decided that it wasn’t worth my time to try and find a suitable scooter. I decided that I would continue to use mass transit, and that I would rent a scooter when going on vacation. This has led to me traveling less, visiting fewer places in Taiwan, spending less money on the local economy, and having fewer fun memories regarding this beautiful island. Not to be dramatic, but my entire life would have been improved if there was a better vehicles classified available.
Market Summary
The fact that these groups are active and growing, shows that there is a real need for these services. If we could make it easy and convenient to match consumer needs and requests with qualified individuals who can meet their specific needs.
Information & Knowledge Sharing Market Analysis
Market Definition
Moving to a new country can constitute a large amount of confusion. There are language barriers, culture gaps, and ill-conceived assumptions that can lead to great difficulty. Many of those who have chosen to immigrate to Taiwan find themselves without the information and knowledge necessary to succeed. Taiwan suffers with language and culture barriers when dealing with its foreign workers.
Problems facing foreign workers include finding preferred food products, locating a doctor they can understand, searching out recreational activities, or even
learning more about Taiwan.
Issues such as finding a friendly English-speaking dentist can seem small, until you have a terrible toothache. How to apply for health insurance. How to apply for ARC APRC.
How to pay taxes. How much to pay in taxes. What is legal; and such cultural questions as
“Do I flush the toilet paper?” or “ Can I drink the water?”
Market Size, Segmentation, and Leaders Online Information Sources
Currently, a large part of Taiwan’s expatriate community is using Facebook to satisfy their information needs. A quick Facebook search found two groups regarding information about Taiwan. Taichung Info Exchange is a Facebook group with the written purpose of “This is a place to ask and answer questions related to living in Taichung and Taiwan.”52 On Nov 10th, 2018, this group had 8,216 members. As of Jan 8th, 2019 this number had risen to 8,357
members. I have been a member of this Facebook group for over a year, and have studied it throughout that time. This group averages multiple post per day. The group also averages multiple responses to each post, often from different users.
Facebook offers no options to view posts chronologically, and their search function is terrible. Many questions are asked and answered by multiple people, multiple times. There was also a “Taipei Info Exchange” on Facebook that was very popular. However, the person running the group decided to achieve the group, which meant that no new posts would be allowed. Everyone who was in the group had to find a new source of information. As of Jan 8, 2018 this group still had 1472 members.53
Reddit.com/r/taiwan
Reddit is a hugely popular website, with smaller communities called “subreddits.” Reddit is now the 3rd most popular website in the United States.54 It continues to gain popularity domestically and internationally. While reddit is very popular, its user base is far from eclectic. According to Statistica, 69% of Reddit users are male, 54% of users are based in the United States, and 64 percent of users are between the ages of 18 and 29.55
The /r/taiwan subreddit offers a “Weekly Questions & Discussion Thread” where users can ask their questions and get answers. Once again, reddit’s search function is far from ideal and many questions are asked and answered multiple times. As of Jan 8, 2018 the subreddit had 23,725 users who “subscribed” to see new content from this forum.56 This forum also tries to offer information in other formats. It boasts a very small wiki, a Line group, a Discord group, and a Steam group.57
The /r/taiwan subreddit seems to average around 5 new posts per day. The forum seems to be an echo chamber for DPP politics, and pro-KMT users are quickly “downvoted”
The subreddit caries bias, and its wiki is not being utilized. Still, people use the weekly question thread as there is currently not a better alternative.
Tealit Articles
Tealit offers an “articles” section on their website which offers limited information about certain aspects of Taiwan. The articles try and attract attention by working as a catch-all for general topics about taiwan. They create an article with the winning receipt lottery numbers every two months. Their website is often used by people only to find an English explanation with the winning numbers.
Tealit Taiwan Receipt Lottery Numbers
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Tealit is making an effort to address foreign needs in Taiwan, however it is severely lacking. The context supplied is written exclusively by Tealit employees. It lacks diversity, clarity, and requires human capital each time it is updated.
Tealit Articles
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Just Landed
The Just Landed website offers the most comprehensive website regarding Taiwan that I could find.60 While very useful, much of the information is out of date. Many of the articles were written in 2013.61 The website suffers from a lack of updates, which is a result of the content requiring resources. Each update requires paying someone to write another article.
Market Summary
Two of these three current market alternatives embrace forums. It is possible that users would also like a forum whereby they could discuss current news, offer insights, share jokes, and make friends. SpeakTaiwan.com will use surveys and further market research to decide if we should create a forum as part of our website.
Market Research Conclusion
Taiwan has substantial overlapping markets with unmet needs. Most of these could be easily addressed with a centralized classifieds platform with a sufficient search function.
Company Products, Services, and Features
Ideally, the Taiwanese community will find our platform so beneficial as to continue using it for all of their needs. When Gabe Newell, founder of Valve Corporation, was asked about piracy he responded “We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem.”62 I reference Mr. Newell as I believe the question asked of him could be applied to SpeakTaiwan.com. The question being
“Why will people visit, and continue to use, your platform?”
I believe that by offering services currently unavailable in Taiwan, and by keeping a high quality of service, SpeakTaiwan.com will never become obsolete. The key is to always offer a more valuable service than the alternative.
Our Services and Features
According to the Utility Maximization Rule, a customer will always choose the product that gives them the highest utility they can afford.63 In terms of free-to-use websites, consumers are paying with their time.
When doing a conjoint analysis, customers are assumed to act rationally. Customers make tradeoffs among attributes, picking the attributes they most value, and choosing the product that gives them the greatest utility. In layman's terms, you don’t have to do everything perfectly. A product only needs to excel where it matters to your customer.
All of the markets researched in this paper have substantial overlap. These markets have needs that are very easily addressed with the same web platform. There
At Launch
Improved Classified Search Function
An improved classified search function, facilitated by a searchable relational database, would benefit nearly every market that we have listed. It would help tutors find pupils, and potential pupils find tutors. It would help teachers find jobs and schools find teachers. It would help renters find apartments, and apartments find renters. It would help jobs find employees, and prospective employees to find jobs.
Teachers could have the option of picking areas of proficiency such as writing,
reading, conversation, business, poetry, technically writing, banking, and many other specific backgrounds. We could allow tutor searching based on gender to facilitate parent and student preference.
The current market alternatives group time into generation options such as “Morning, Afternoon, and Evening.” This is a ridiculous way to search. We would allow teachers to list, to the minute, their free time. That way, schools and pupils could search for tutors and
teachers who could exactly fit their schedules.
In regard to the private tutoring market, our tutors and pupils could specify where they were willing to meet. We could have tutors who were willing to host students at their own home, or pupils willing to host tutors. If we gathered addresses, it would be possible to perform a search based on travel time while keeping addresses anonymous in a style similar to Airbnb.
The benefits to an improved search function are nearly endless. It would be
impossible to list every conceivable benefit in this paper. Furthermore, facilitating a better search function requires very little effort. It only requires a sufficient searchable database. As
creating such a database for all information entered on our website is SpeakTaiwan.com’s first priority, these benefits are easily within reach.
Profiles
SpeakTaiwan.com would like to avoid, as much as possible, the front-page weakness seen in current market competitors. We would therefore like the user profile to be the classified itself.
Each user wishing to teach or tutor would create a user profile. A tutor or teacher could simply choose whether they are looking for work, their available hours, and their preferred salary.
We will allow teachers to post their preferred contact method, such as direct
messaging via our website, Line, WeChat, Facebook, or email. We would even offer to act as an intermediary email service - such as how craigslist operates - to reduce spam and
solicitation emails. Giving our users freedom of communication encourages them to return to our website.
SpeakTaiwan.com would also encourage all teachers to post a video of them speaking in the language they desire to teach. These videos would be hosted via YouTube, so hosting and data fees would be passed on to YouTube. By removing barriers to finding teachers, to posting advertisements, and to quickly gauging the quality of a candidate, SpeakTaiwan.com can quickly become a market leader.
Substitute Teachers
Teachers who are looking to substitute could put in the distance they are willing to travel, the hours they are free, and the lowest hourly pay they are willing to accept. When a teacher requires a substitute, they could put in the location, time, and pay. SpeakTaiwan.com could then send an email alert to willing substitutes each time a job matching their desired
Job Search
Our job search would be better than alternatives by requiring pertinent information to post.
Each post would require the spoken and written languages necessary to be considered for employment. Each post would also have information regarding all other relevant
qualifications.
All of these would be searchable by our prospective employees.
Each prospective employee would be able to save a profile with their qualifications, and would have the option to set an alert anytime jobs are posted for which they are qualified.
While requiring pertinent information is clearly important to those looking for jobs, it is important to make the experience of posting an opportunity as easy as possible. Job posters will be able to save and reuse general information to save time and increase productivity.
Classifieds
Free, easy to use, and easily searchable classifieds is key to the success of SpeakTaiwan.com.
We will model our classifieds section after the KSL.com classifieds section, with categories for items, and a robust search function located at buy.speaktaiwan.com. We will also offer specific classifieds for housing at house.speaktaiwan.com, and automotive sales at
car.speaktaiwan.com. All of these pages will be easily accessible from the main page of the website. Nothing will change for the user except the preface of the domain name. This is to help users quickly navigate, and link to, their desired classified.
Wiki
Taiwan suffers from a fragmented knowledge base when dealing with its foreign workers. A Wiki is “a website on which users collaboratively modify content and structure directly from the web browser.”64 The most famous wiki is Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia project.
Wiki’s have strengths and drawbacks, but many of the weaknesses do not apply when working on objective issues. It is difficult to show bias when writing the steps needed to apply for an ARC, or other informative articles.
Taiwan’s current government resources often have English sections, but these are - in my experience - poorly worded and very confusing. I have always looked for other avenues, particularly social media, to find answers to my Taiwan questions. A Wiki could consolidate information and ensure that valuable knowledge is preserved and accessible.
The software required to create a wiki are open source, and therefore free. The most popular software options are mediawiki.org, dokuwiki.org, and tiki.org. Wiki’s have moved from a profitable side business for enterprising tech-savvy hopefuls, to big business owned by large corporations. Currently, the largest of these is Wikia, Inc., which is also known as Fandom. According to Crunchbase, Wikia has raised $145.5 Million USD in capital.65
The reason for Wikia’s success is because all moderation, information, content creation, and editing is done for free, by the users themselves. The same users who create content also generate revenue by being counted as website viewers and visitors. Many other users will come to visit the wiki, looking for the information added by previous users. Most for-profit Wikis are ad-supported, meaning that they run advertisements - normally in the shape of banner advertisements - to gain revenue and cover server costs.
When hosting the wiki it would be possible to host it under a new name, such as wikitapei.org, or to appendix our current side, wiki.speaktaiwan.com.
I believe adding the appendix to our current site would offer the most value, as it would serve to strengthen our current brand. It would help speaktaiwan.com to become part of the common vernacular, rather than a fringe website.
Teacher Aids
This would be similar to the wiki in that it would host user generated content. However, since a great deal of the foreign talent in Taiwan comes here to teach English, it would be focused on empowering English teachers. The website, teach.speaktaiwan.com, would allow teachers to upload and share teaching resources. It would allow users to rate, search and filter, and find valuable content. Taiwan has unique holidays and traditions that require worksheets available nowhere else in the world. The website, teach.speaktaiwan.com, would quickly become a hub for teachers looking for lesson plans, worksheets, and fun classroom ideas.
Dual Language Interface
SpeakTaiwan.com will have two different versions, speaktaiwan.com/en, and
speaktaiwan.com/tw. Each website will offer the same exact information, with the only difference being the language of the website. Each web page will be offered in Traditional Chinese and in English. Therefore, non-English speaking persons can navigate and post on the website, and non-Chinese speaking persons can do so as well. However, all
user-generated content, such as classifieds and the wiki, will not be translated, and will require separate versions.
Future Projects
Tutor Assistance
SpeakTaiwan.com would like to partner with select tutors in finding suitable venues and students to teach unique and worthwhile classes. My wife was a competitive swimmer for over 13 years. She was a successful collegiate athlete who competed at the national level. She was also a swimming instructor for 3 years.
Since coming to Taiwan, many parents have asked her to teach their children how to swim. However, she does not have a suitable venue where she can teach. She has no Chinese ability to find a venue, or to negotiate fees with the parents. Yet, these parents would love to sign up their children for English swimming lessons. It would be a two-for-one opportunity, whereby their children could learn English and how to swim at the same time.
My wife is not unique in this situation. Many foreigners have useful skills, outside of speaking English, that they would love to share with the Taiwanese. Taiwan, as a whole, struggles in terms of creativity. Taiwan’s young people often find it difficult to explore creative pursuits, such as learning sports, developing artistic or musical abilities, and other specific interests.
SpeakTaiwan.com would love to help tutors find venues where, and students with whom they can share these talents. SpeakTaiwan.com believes in a future consisting of non-traditional language tutoring. We could facilitate music tutors, athletic tutors, dance tutors, programming tutors, and much more. SpeakTaiwan.com would call these tutoring session, activity-based tutoring.
Translation Services
SpeakTaiwan.com will quickly become the central hub for foreign talent in Taiwan. Many of the foreign students in Taiwan prefer the “gig economy” rather than part-time work.
SpeakTaiwan.com could therefore facilitate translation services between our talented users, and Taiwanese companies.
Ratings
SpeakTaiwan.com would like to allow constructive feedback between schools, teachers, pupils, tutors, employees, and businesses.
BuXiban Review
It would be rather easy to start a list of all known buxibans in Taiwan that hire foreign talent.
We could have the teachers review their employers. It is possible that a “conflict resolution”
feature, between buxiban and teacher, would also be beneficial.
Background Check Assistance
Currently, one of the requirements for teaching at a buxiban in Taiwan is a background check from the teacher’s home country.66 This background check is not needed when working as a private tutor, nor is it needed to teach at a public school. as it is assumed parents can judge for themselves. Therefore, one of the issues regarding finding qualified substitute teachers for buxiban classes is finding a teacher who has a background check.
Currently, the government has no programs in place to facilitate the use of substitute teachers. SpeakTaiwan.com will work hard to petition the government to allow willing, yet currently unemployed teachers, to receive the government certifications necessary to substitute buxiban classes.
Late-Game Projects
International Schools
Eventually, I would like to start an international school similar to Taipei American School.
However, there would be no national requirement to attend. All students would be welcome, so long as they had sufficient speaking ability. I would like to place these schools throughout Taiwan, and bring international education to all of Taiwan.
Marketing Strategy
Free
It is my belief, that in order to quickly become the market favorite, that SpeakTaiwan.com should begin as a completely free-to-use and advertisement free experience. Being
completely free should help users quickly calculate the cost to benefit ratio of using our website.
Current Websites
The fact that SpeakTaiwan.com will initially be free-to-use and advertisement free should allow us to post links to the website on the groups and forums listed in the market research.
By posting the link in a way such as:
I was frustrated by the lack of a decent alternative to these websites, so I made my own. It is 100% free-to-use and doesn’t have any advertisements. It offers a robust search function and addresses many of the issues I’ve found while here in Taiwan. Please feel free to use it and let me know what you think.
SpeakTaiwan.com could be accepted as the wonderful alternative for which it is, rather than shunned as a quick money grab.
Buxibans
It is important for SpeakTaiwan.com to create relationships with the buxibans here in Taiwan. We want them to post their open positions on our website. We will reach out to those buxibans advertising on tealit and other websites and invite them to post to our website. We will also message as many other buxibans as possible.
Taiwanese Companies
It is equally as important for SpeakTaiwan.com to cultivate partnerships with Taiwanese companies. We would do this by searching the ContactTaiwan website for companies
wanting to hire foreign talent. We would reach out to these companies and ask them to post to our website.
Taiwan Government
We will also work to cultivate relationships with the government and schools in Taiwan to have them advertise on our website.
Taiwan’s Web Services
Many of Taiwan’s websites and forms have English language versions that are far from comprehensible. It is possible that we could translate government instructions and forms in exchange for advertisements such as “Translation Service Provided Free of Charge by SpeakTaiwan.com”.
News Sources
SpeakTaiwan.com should work with local bloggers and local English news sources, such TaiwanNews.com and TaipeiTimes.com, to publish stories about the website and attract attention from the English-speaking community in Taiwan.
Local Universities
SpeakTaiwan.com could also partner with local Taiwanese universities in an effort to reach their foreign and exchange students. It is possible that many of these universities would be willing to send out an email introducing their students to SpeakTaiwan.com.
Emulate The Local Competition
Many local buxibans stand out front of schools and wait for the kids to be picked up by their parents. They hand out fliers and pamphlets advertising their local buxiban.
SpeakTaiwan.com could emulate this behavior and advertise their tutoring services in a similar manner. SpeakTaiwan.com could also use this approach to visit buxibans and advertise our ability to help them hire qualified teachers.
Marketing Strategy Summary
SpeakTawian.com’s marketing strategy focuses on publicity. It is our belief that the website offers enough appeal on its own to merit use. Once users find the website, they will start to use it. The key is attracting enough people to the website for it to become the market leader.
Objectives
First Year
Market Research
SpeakTaiwan.com will begin with extensive market research, through a vast online survey aimed at our target market, about user experience and user preferences. We will use this information to shape our developing website.
Website Development
Website development is an ongoing process. The best websites continually improve their user experience in response to user feedback, and self-evaluation within the company. Current market research varies about the length of time needed to finish a website. This makes sense, as each website has different needs and requirements. Website design consists of strategy development, architecture development, web design, and then development.67
Website Development Timeline
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Market Share
Our first year objective is to gain as much market share as possible. I will work with colleges,
soft-launch. This is where we have the site running, but aren’t doing any active advertising.
We want to make sure all of the systems work. We would ask people to post items for sale to help us test the system.
Second Year Objectives
Profitability
Once we have a large enough market share, SpeakTaiwan.com will do a survey among our users. This survey will discuss various “roads to sustainability” for the website. The survey will ask users if they would approve of corporate sponsors, banner advertisements, sponsored listings, or any other viable alternative. SpeakTaiwan.com will then carefully examine and consider all of the survey responses. We will then implement the options that give us the greatest amount of profitability with the least cost of user satisfaction.
Three Years and Further Objectives
SpeakTaiwan.com will continue to listen to users and analyze website data in an effort to continually improve the website. Once the website is profitable, we will begin working towards implementing our long-term goals of activity-based language learning, and international schools.
Key Concerns and Challenges
Market Share
SpeakTaiwan.com’s success is dependent upon our ability to gain market share. Finding and attracting qualified teachers, schools, and businesses will require real marketing efforts. We must provide proper incentives, through the appeal of our high functionality website, to attract these individuals, businesses and schools.
Further Fragmentation
A key concern is that of only attracting a partial amount of the market. We could then
become another competing website, and further market fragmentation. Rather than fixing the problem, we could then, in essence, contribute to it.
69 However, I believe that this scenario is highly unlikely. SpeakTaiwan.com, while similar to current market alternatives, offers a different value with its robust search feature.
Therefore, we are not competing in the same market, as we have changed the market.
Organizational Management
Website
SpeakTaiwan.com will require both website developers and a server administrator. It is important to weigh our options and consider whether it would be better to hire full-time developers, or to use contractors. I believe that with Taiwan’s excess of talented individuals, it should be relatively easy to find willing and qualified applicants. The real question is where we will post the job listing.
Wiki
Initially, all wiki content creation and moderation will be done by the SpeakTaiwan.com team. A lot of this can be done by finding useful articles on different websites, and adapting them to our own wiki. This initial content creation is crucial for the wiki to become adopted by users. It would therefore be in our best interest to have as much content as possible. We could then pay a few “content creation contractors” to make specific sites for our wiki.
Ideally, these would be native Taiwanese individuals who understand their country, but who have also lived abroad. These individuals would have no issues understand current government policies written in Chinese, and could then easily explain them in English. We would pay these individuals on a per-project basis, rather than hourly, to encourage
productivity.
Wiki Moderation
Initially, all wiki moderation will be done by the SpeakTaiwan.com team. Once the wiki gets popular, we will following the example of other wikis and identify users who are the most active in posting and correcting quality content. We would then contact them and invite them
