TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese company Pinkoi is working to reduce barriers to international e-commerce, by empowering designers and customers with tools to streamline communication and financial transactions across national markets.
On the most recent episode of the Startup Island Taiwan podcast, guest Peter Yen (顏君庭), the CEO of Pinkoi, joined host Uly Su, to discuss the company’s experiences and recent innovations. The podcast was broadcast on Dec. 9, and provides some great insight into current trends in e-commerce.
The online marketplace Pinkoi is a little different from most e-commerce market sites. That’s because it provides new designers with a way to directly market their products to customers online.
The idea behind Pinkoi is to cut out as many middlemen as possible between product designers and customers, reducing many costs associated with marketing and distribution.
The goal is to empower designers and independent businesses with effective and accessible tools to reach their customers. For example, the company has developed an AI-powered translation tool that will help customers and designers to discuss products and transactions despite language barriers.
Pinkoi has been operating for a little over a decade, but it has really begun to grow in the last six years. Yen says that since the marketplace and related tools are now well-established, he hopes the company can begin branching out into consulting services to help businesses using Pinkoi to scale operations, gain more exposure, and expand their reach.
In many ways, Pinkoi can serve as a launching platform for designers to establish business operations. Yen says that Pinkoi serves as a community of designers and marketing specialists who cooperate with one another to refine business strategies.
Yen also discusses the obstacles he faced when adapting Pinkoi's business model to the Japanese market. For an interesting and educational discussion on how an e-commerce platform and its management matured thanks to its cross-cultural experiences, check out the episode using the player above.
You can also listen to the episode on the official Startup Island Taiwan podcast website on First Story.
