Wang: Taiwan's Richest Woman To Challenge Apple

"We should be ahead of Apple." That's how HTC chairwoman Cher Wang, dubbed "the female Steve Jobs" by industry insiders and "the most powerful woman in global technology" by the New York Times, once confidently said. The daughter of the "King of Formosa Plastics", who has struggled with global giants for 20 years and rarely failed, founded HTC, which surpassed Nokia in 2011 with a market value of $33.8 billion ($32.84 billion). With a net worth of $6.8 billion, she and her husband, Chen Wen-chi, have beaten Terry Gou, chairman of Hon Hai Group, the world's contract manufacturing king, to become Taiwan's richest man.

'The daughter most like her Father'

"Wang Xuehong's status in the science and technology industry is no less than her father Wang Yongqing's achievements in the petrochemical industry." "Business Week" once said.

Wang Xuehong is the youngest daughter of Wang Yongqing's second wife. Like her siblings, she faces the same problem. In many of her articles, she is often described as "the daughter who most resembles her father", and admits that "my father is a big influence on me". One of Wang's beliefs is to cultivate children's "independence." Wang's brother and sister were sent to Britain to study and experience. To Wang Xuehong, Wang Yongqing found that the world's economic and cultural center has been transferred from Britain to the United States, then the 15-year-old daughter "threw" to the United States San Francisco a Jewish host family, began her independent study career - this situation with the mainland "rich second generation" by the favor myriad can be said to be a world of difference.

Her father was very strict with her. During her sophomore year as an intern, she worked in her father's Formosa Plastics Group for two weeks. "I felt bored and ran away," Wang said. My father "chewed me out for ten years."

Perhaps it was her father's genes or the boredom of her working life that gave her the idea to start her own business in 1988. Instead of borrowing from her father, she borrowed NT $5 million from a bank, using her mother's house in Taipei as collateral, to buy a Silicon Valley company that became Via Electronics.

In Taiwan's corporate world, there is a saying that goes, "When you have a baby, you should be like Chang, and when you have a daughter, you should be like Snow Hong Wang." In the view of Via employees, "several children, Wang Xuehong most like Wang Yongqing. It comes down to the fact that she's the most forceful and the most aggressive when it matters." When Ms. Wang started HTC, she wanted to make handheld computers. As a result, she lost NT $440 million in the first two years of her business. Ms. Wang believes in judging future trends. "There is still money on Via's side, so I will continue to pour money into HTC."

Today, Taiwan Via Group has several well-known subsidiaries, such as Taiwan's HTC. HTC, which makes HTC phones, is well known. A few years later, HTC's HTC phones sold well, proving Wang's judgment. HTC's share price hit a new high on February 21 last year, making it Taiwan's "stock king". The total market capitalization reached T $800bn. That is more than Formosa Plastics, Taihua, and Nanya Plastics, which were founded by his father Wang Yung-ching.

A female Steve Jobs takes on Apple

On various occasions, Ms. Wang said, "Steve focused on one design, one innovation, making one iPhone for everyone. We are different. What we have to do is suit different people. We think that any end user will have different needs." The language is euphemistic, but also strong.

As early as September 2009, Ms. Wang issued a challenge to Mr. Jobs. The low-key Ms. Wang began the brand strategy. The brand, packaged as an HTC dream, is a direct competitor to Apple. In the U.S. smartphone market, HTC is second only to Apple with a 25% market share, according to Analysys International. Working with Google to adopt robots -- Android's constant competition with Apple has created a lot of pressure.

In addition to the battle for market share, Ms. Wang has been battling Apple for years over patents. In the IT industry, patent disputes between companies seem to have become commonplace. Apple's case against HTC is in smartphones.

Although Apple's lawsuit does not directly target Google's Android operating system, it is widely seen by industry insiders as a move by Apple to block Android. In May 2010, HTC began countersuing Apple for infringement. At one point in April 2011, amid the tit-for-tat, the U.S. International Trade Commission expressed support for HTC because it "found no credible evidence of infringement." Then, on July 8th, a reluctant Apple filed another patent suit against HTC over 10 patent infringements. HTC bought S3 Graphics, a Graphics chip maker, for $300 million in a bid to secure patents from Apple. In July, the U.S. International Trade Commission formally ruled that Apple's Mac OS X system infringed the S3 Graphics patent. S3 holds patents that Apple can't get around, making it an important asset for HTC. "I think we are the same as Apple. We have a lot of patents," Wang said.

"Desperate Mother" takes on Intel

It is not the only case of taking on Apple against a well-known international brand. As early as when Wang started her business and was still a small ant, she chose an elephant - to compete with Intel. Wang Xuehong will be through the business focus locked chipsets, sales have been good. In 1992, Andy Gruff, then CEO of IT giant Intel, asked to meet Wang. Unexpectedly, the "call" was a warning from Gruff: "You shouldn't be doing this. Intel is going to be very tough on chipset challengers." Is alleged: "Beside the bed, do not allow others to sleep."

Back in Taiwan, Ms. Wang and her then business partner and later husband, Chen Wen-chi, were unconvinced. In their opinion, the early chipset leaders in the United States were almost all overseas students from Taiwan, and Intel made its products very expensive, so why not let others make chips? As a result, Wang once again showed her "three Niang" strengths, and her company team made a full effort to develop new technology and expand sales. Ms. Wang's Via came under intense scrutiny from Intel. Starting in 1999, every time Via launched a new product, "Intel would come out and say, 'Via infringed again,'" Ms. Wang recalled. In June 1999, Intel filed a lawsuit against VIA in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and other countries to prevent VIA from exporting Intel-compatible chipsets to the United States. Ms. Wang fought Intel's global legal onslaught against Via nonstop, attending more than 100 hearings around the world as chairwoman. Intel eventually failed to win the case, offering a settlement and signing a patent swap agreement.

"I'm stressed, but very optimistic. If I worry all day, Intel wins." Wang Xuehong once said. Wang decided to "fight fire with fire." She began to move into Intel's heartland, into the CPU space, and she developed a strategy to acquire Cyrix. Cyrix, a maker of Intel-compatible chips, was acquired by National Semiconductor in 1997. In July 1999, Via signed an agreement with National Semiconductor to acquire Cyrix's PC processor production division. In August 1999, VIA acquired IDT, another CPU manufacturer. Later, Via acquired S3, a graphics, video, and multimedia accelerator provider. S3 and Intel had a cross-licensing agreement, which meant that Via would share all the cross-licensed technology between S3 and Intel.