Abstract

The total value of Taiwan's domestic information security industry in 2006 was approximately NT$29.33 billion (US$894.2 million). As the domestic market continues to grow and information security companies expand into overseas markets, Taiwan's information industry is expected to maintain a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 25.0%, and grow to NT$57.29 billion (US$1.75 billion) by 2009.

Taiwan's domestic information security enterprises are mostly SMEs. Some of them are involved in R&D for their own brands, and most work in either content security or threat management. Because of the limited size of Taiwan's market, many companies have long focused on foreign markets as keys to future growth. Taiwanese companies began expanding into overseas information security markets as early as 2000, and as of May 2007 almost all own-branded Taiwanese information security companies had set up branches or partnered with sales agents in overseas markets, primarily Japan, China, and Europe. In the threat management market, information security will continue to be combined with network communications equipment and continue expanding into mobile and wireless application areas, giving large Taiwanese network communications vendors a pivotal role in the Taiwanese information security market. The content security market is still dominated by email security services, and companies are adapting to high demand for products that will help customers comply with laws and protect personal information.

Nearly 80% of Taiwan's information security service providers are systems integrators, followed by information security consultants and managed information security service providers. Over the past several years many product agents and systems integrators have begun to gradually strengthen and expand their value-added service offerings, or develop high value-added information security consulting and outsourcing services. Most of these are currently focused on the Taiwanese domestic market. When it comes to managed services, domestic companies have certain advantages over foreign companies especially with respect to services for governmental agencies; but most are still faced with insufficient industry knowledge and experience, which must be earned gradually over time. In consulting services, comprehensive information security management, system, and application consulting services are expected to become more popular in the future as companies realize that allowing corporate IT departments to procure information security products is often insufficient to protect against threats. This is illustrated by the fact that nearly all Taiwanese companies use some form of firewall and virus protection, but only 0.3% have never suffered information security related issues, and 50.8% are still struggling with virus infections.

Appendix

List of Companies