Taiwan startup wins FbStart Apps of the Year Awards

2016/06/06

Taiwan startup VoiceTube is winner of FbStart Apps of the Year Awards, beating out more than 1,000 teams from 89 countries and territories to claim the grand prize of US$50,000 in cash and US$50,000 in Facebook ad credits.

Announced at RISE startup conference May 28 to June 2 in Hong Kong, the honor is the first for a Taiwan outfit in the second edition of the annual awards launched by popular social network Facebook to help global startups grow and expand their business.

Halu Hsieh, chief operating officer and co-founder of VoiceTube, said the appeal of language learning helped the app stand out among the competition, and led to discussions between his company and Facebook on a strategic partnership.

“We are planning to expand our English-learning program to Japan because there is strong demand there,” he said, “Based on that experience, we may develop other programs for other languages in the future.”

The app enables its more than 1.5 million members to learn English by watching videos, playing back sentences and comparing self-recorded versions. It boasts more than 35,000 videos with bilingual subtitles, as well as learning tools like an online dictionary.

According to VoiceTube, the app’s is free for users with revenues derived from ads. Plans are in the pipeline to introduce upgraded paid service HERO later this year.

VoiceTube was founded in 2012 by Hsieh and CEO Richard Zenn with an investment of NT$1 million (US$30,660) each. The company turned a profit of NT$20 million last year.

The government places a premium on cultivating innovative youth startups in Taiwan. Since 2014, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has overseen a 13-agency, 48-action plan program providing young entrepreneurs with access to finance and mentorship services, as well as an array of incentives.

MOEA statistics reveal that under the program from 2014 to 2015, the government allocated over NT$2.31 billion (US$ 70 million) toward assisting more than 100,000 individuals and 7,604 startups spanning industries like emerging agriculture, cultural and creative, and social enterprise.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=245343&ctNode=2194&mp=9)