Businesses in Taiwan develop products for senior citizens through cross-sector cooperation.
The inaugural Healthy Ageing Tech Show was a three-day exhibition in Taipei City that married business opportunity with the widely held desire for an independent and healthy old age, both on the part of the demographic concerned and by a government faced with a soon-to-be superaged population. Jointly organized by multiple central government agencies including the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ (MOEA) Industrial Development Administration (IDA), the show envisioned a fulfilling, technology-enabled retirement. “There is global interest in successful aging, and this show reflects Taiwan’s commitment to a healthy and satisfying life for seniors,” said IDA Deputy Director General Chen Pei-li (陳佩利).
Taiwan relies on technology to improve elderly well-being. Apart from approximately 200 companies in 735 booths, four state-backed organizations highlight the role of technology in their products and services: the Metal Industries Research and Development Centre (MIRDC), the Food Industry Research and Development Institute, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and the Taiwan Textile Research Institute.
Taiwan Textile Research Institute’s smart fabric with circuits that monitor muscles features at the Healthy Ageing Tech Show. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
The show is part of strategy adopted by the MOEA to expand eldercare markets, which is one of the four targeted areas in the Age-Tech Industry Action Plan approved by the Executive Yuan last year. Thanks to this initiative, ITRI’s Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center (ISTI) said the revenue generated by the health and wellness industry in Taiwan is expected to exceed NT$300 billion (US$9.38 billion) by 2025, up from NT$289.5 billion (US$9.05 billion) in 2023. The estimate was made by calculating revenues generated by businesses across three categories. Those in the first category address physical issues through, for example, wearable devices for monitoring vital signs, special diets or health management services. Those in the second category maintain independent living by providing transport options and home repair services, while the third category focuses on social connectivity and enjoying fulfilling lives through adult learning or travel.
Burgeoning Opportunities
As equipment and devices are essential market segments for the older adult demographic, IDA provides subsidies to businesses developing such products, with guidance from state-supported bodies as diverse as the MIRDC and the Footwear & Recreation Technology Research Institute. “The key to success is to develop affordable and easy-to-use products for older consumers,” Chen added.
Products on display at the show include food items designed for both flavor and ease of chewing and swallowing. (Photo by Chin Hung-hao)
Smart tech solutions can unlock further business potential, as shown by Tongren Renai Senior Citizen’s Home (TRSCH) in the southern county of Yunlin. Embracing a self-reliant care model introduced to Taiwan from Japan in the mid-2010s, the home provides personalized diet and exercise plans to disabled and bedridden residents to enable them to maintain dignity and resume a physically independent life. In 2018 tech company Wistron Corp. approached TRSCH’s management to discuss cooperating on using artificial intelligence (AI) to carry out this brief more effectively. A partnership was established, with caregivers at the nursing home working together with Wistron’s engineers to create a system that produced personalized regimens to help residents regain degrees of independence. This has had increasingly satisfactory results. “Seniors have the right to live the life they want and we should do our best to support them,” said TRSCH President Lin Chin-li (林金立). “In the past, once people were bedridden, they were likely to remain so until the end of life. Now such deterioration is actually reversible, and the reversal is accelerated with AI interventions.”
Improving residents’ wellness aside, Lin said AI applications at the nursing home also create multiple business opportunities. For residents to access improved outcomes, they need to use assistive devices, follow exercise programs and have special diets and supplements, all of which benefit product developers and services. “With AI we can more accurately and efficiently identify what individual residents should use and eat to return to mobility,” Lin added. After success at TRSCH, Wistron’s AI applications are being adopted in 20 facilities around the country.
Data on levels of physical fitness collected at Tongren Renai Senior Citizen’s Home in southern Taiwan enables the facility to suggest tailored activities based on residents’ overall wellness. (Courtesy of Tongren Renai Senior Citizen’s Home)
Cross-Sector Cooperation
The Age-Tech Industry Action Plan emphasizes building links between sectors to maximize market potential. “When it comes to challenges for the age-tech industry, it’s not about developing highly sophisticated technologies. Rather, it’s about whether we can integrate resources from different sectors to have a positive impact on consumers and the economy,” Chen said. The IDA plays a central role in this respect by providing financial support to Taiwan businesses. Starting this summer, the government agency gave subsidies of up to NT$20 million (US$625,000) to 10 projects, each of which involves multiple enterprises. This funding initiative will run over a period of two years, at the end of which the IDA will assess the project outcomes so businesses can act on the feedback to revise and optimize approaches.
One of those subsidized is a project involving Chung Tou Cable TV Co. in central Taiwan, which has a platform that enables viewers to use a remote control to reserve transport and home repair services provided by partner businesses. Another project involves Compal Electronics, a prominent Taipei-based IT company, which shows seniors how to use its exercise equipment according to their individual data collected by selected pharmacies. Meanwhile, ubiquitous convenience store FamilyMart works with ASUSTek Computer Inc. and Laurel Corp. on an app for buying Laurel health foods online, which are individually recommended according to data produced by ASUS’ devices that monitor the consumer’s health status.
These projects take advantage of lifestyles shared by many senior citizens, such as daily TV watching and visiting a pharmacy on a regular basis for chronic disease medications. “All these services or products exist in the market. Making them visible and accessible to seniors just requires some ingenuity to create links among these different sectors,” Chen said.
A TRSCH staff member demonstrates a walker with a design based on data gathered at the facility. (Photo by Oscar Chung)
Morphing Markets
At the Healthy Ageing Tech Show, IDA announced an alliance comprising over 30 selected enterprises that address senior citizens’ needs. “Many are small-scale businesses, so this new platform enables them to create joint business opportunities by sharing clients or jointly developing products,” said ISTI Deputy General Director Chang Tsz-yin (張慈映), adding that the alliance is expected to grow to more than 100 members by the end of this year. “It takes teamwork to ensure the industry is sustainable.”
As the older adult demographic is the focus of various sectors working together to create a healthy future and stable business models, ISTI expects the health and wellness industry’s compound annual growth rate to reach 3.89 percent between 2022 and 2027. The market will continue to grow as longevity increases, government policy supports demographic challenges and more businesses compete in the sector. “The populace is aging fast in Taiwan, so taking good care of seniors is a national security issue,” Chen said. “As the industry matures, it contributes to the economy and healthy national development.”
Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw