Presenting Three of Kaohsiung's Unique Entrepreneurs
Presenting Three of Kaohsiung's Unique Entrepreneurs
◎Written by Guo Han-cheng
◎English translation by Hou Ya-ting
◎Photos courtesy of Sie Cheng-you, Sie Ying-cin, Jhang Ruei-long
TThroughout history, Kaohsiung has produced some impressive entrepreneurs. They all started from the ground up and put many hours of hard work into innovating new products and building their businesses. Mr. Sie Cheng-you, Mr. Sie Ying-cin and Mr. Jhang Ruei-long are three examples of interesting entrepreneurs that have produced very unique local businesses. These include digital travel photo publishing, manufacturing micro toy blocks and creating safer braking systems for bicycles.
Adventrip Ltd.
Mr. Sie Cheng-you is the creator of Adventrip Ltd. The company assists travelers in digitally recording their journeys and then providing them with a professional platform to share photos with their friends and family. The best part of the company is that users can do this without having to worry about any privacy issues.
Mr. Sie got inspired to create the company when his friends began sending him their travel photos while they were aboard. Mr. Sie would use Google Street Maps to get a closer look at the places they had been. He felt that this gave him a kind of feeling that he had been part of the trip.
He then began working with a team of technologists to create an app that could assist travelers in recording their trips. He found that apps were difficult to promote, so the team created a webification site where users would upload their photos through Adventrip graphic editor. Users would then get a link, and they could match the photo location with Google Street View, which would give it a more real and 3D effect. Then the user sends private links to whoever they wished to share it with. The service is secure; it can only be accessed by people that have had the link sent to them.
Mr. Sie guarantees that it is easy to use. The user must simply scan the installation software, which links the photos with Google Maps. After scanning their photos, the user will get panoramic views of the location that the uploaded photo had been taken. He feels that Adventrip Software is an impressive way to log and remember journeys. When travelers visit historical sites, they can simply scan a QR code and then see what their photos looks like when it is combined with Google Street View. The software produces an image that shows what the location looked like when the site was visited.
This Aventrip Software has been highly acclaimed by an organization known as Small Businesses in Innovative Research (SBIR). Avantrip comes highly ranked and is one of Kaohsiung's great innovative small businesses. It was also nominated for the Smart City Innovative Companies award this year, which is held annually by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Mr. Sie hopes that Aventrip Software can also be used to promote Taiwan's cultural and historical sites. Mr. Sie plans to promote Aventrip throughout the island, as well as aboard. He hopes Aventrip Software will become number one with tourists who enjoy documenting the world's most famous landmarks.
YOUR Block Micro Toy Blocks
Mr. Sie Ying-cin is the founder of Youzixuan Network Marketing Co., Ltd. He aims to design a series of toy blocks that are put together to create miniatures of Taiwan's most prominent landmarks. He hopes that when people construct these miniatures, they will be able to better recognize and gain a greater appreciation of Taiwan's beautiful architecture. Youzixuan has created more than 20 miniature sets, including Longshan Temple in Danshuei, Chihkan Tower (Fort Provintia) in Tainan and Fortress San Domingo in Danshui, etc. In order to create a more sophisticated and authentic resemblance, Mr. Sie has had to develop nearly 60 different shapes of toy blocks.
Youzixuan has even recreated the National Palace Museum's Jadeite Cabbage. He first had to obtain permission from the museum's administration, before he could begin recreating the national treasure out of micro blocks. He asserts that it was indeed an honorable but daunting task, with the smallest blocks being only 4×4×3 millimeters (roughly the size of two grains of rice). Mr. Sie explains that the biggest challenge while producing the tiny sized blocks was making the molds. Mr. Sie felt the Jadeite Cabbage project proved that Youzixuan is capable of creating any type of miniature, and can overcome any challenge that they encounter, from designing the miniature, creating the 3D drawing and acquiring the raw materials, to making the mold and packaging the product.
Youzixuan is a Kaohsiung based company. Therefore, Mr. Sie wanted to honor his city by recreating the city's most recent architectural public landmarks, including Kaohsiung Exhibition Center, Kaohsiung Main Public Library, Kaohsiung Port Terminal and Kaohsiung Music Center. Mr. Sie hopes kids will enjoy playing with his specially designed micro toy blocks and that they also learn more about Kaohsiung's landmarks.
Ginda New-Tech Co., Ltd.
Mr. Jhang Ruei-long is an award-winning entrepreneur and founder of Ginda New-Tech Co., Ltd. Ginda has become famous for its specialized bicycle two-wheeled braking system. Mr. Jhang got the idea for his products when he heard how many cycling enthusiasts were getting injured because of inadequate braking systems on their bicycles. His goal was to greatly reduce cycling accidents, so he began to design an innovative bicycle braking system. With his background in physics, he was successful in designing safer bicycle brakes. At first, he wasn't planning on releasing his invention to public. However, several years later, he was a physics teacher; one of his student's parents learned about his invention and encouraged Mr. Jhang to apply for a patent. They then urged him to begin mass producing his invention so that more cyclists could benefit from the improved braking system. It was at that time that Mr. Jhang established Ginda New-Tech Co., Ltd. and devoted himself to designing the Double CBS system. The system has now been upgraded three times and is recognized in many countries. He has been awarded gold design medals in Germany and Japan; this year, he won the Red Dot Design award in Singapore.