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The use of social media and TV channels is high among financial intermediaries in Taiwan, but print newspapers are still popular as well, according to a survey by Fundamental Research.
Taiwanese investment professionals favour direct messaging applications such as LINE and WeChat over traditional professional social media like LinkedIn. They mainly use social media in a professional manner to read content from asset managers, but three out of four also use social media to contact clients.
In 2019, Fundamental Research surveyed wholesale and retail intermediaries in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore about their views on fund selection, asset manager communication and their media consumption habits. Fundamental Research has conducted similar research in Europe and the United States of America.
Brand strength is by far the most important fund selection factor for Taiwanese financial intermediaries, overshadowing all other criteria. A good second is volatility/risk. As the Taiwanese regulations are fostering the master trust distribution model for offshore funds, foreign asset managers don't have to incur huge costs to set up their office on the island and can thus often afford expensive marketing campaigns to attract new assets hence the importance of brand strength.
On the other hand, cost and transparency are ranking surprisingly low, which is in sharp contrast with most other countries surveyed, where those factors are usually in the top five of fund selection criteria. However, for end investors cost is almost three times as important as a selection criterion than it is for financial intermediaries, while brand strength is almost twice as important for financial intermediaries.
More than 55% of financial intermediaries have been prompted by online editorial pieces to conduct research on a new fund. Furthermore, 30% of respondents researched a new fund after having seen the fund advertised online. Peers/colleagues are ranking at the very bottom in Taiwan while it is ranking at the very top in Singapore, suggesting different approaches towards fund research in both Asian countries.
Other findings from the Taiwanese Financial Intermediary Research include:
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