91APP (Stock code: 6741), the first native SaaS company listed in Taiwan, has been awarded the top prize in the “2024 Taiwan BIC Award.” This prestigious recognition highlights 91APP’s outstanding performance in innovative strategies, competitive advantages, growth potential, and sustainable operations. Among 784 publicly listed companies with market capitalization ranging from $100 million to $500 million, 91APP stood out and secured the top honor.
The “2024 Taiwan BIC Award,” organized by the Taiwan Institute of Directors (TWIOD) and the Corporate Development Research Center (CDRC), aims to identify medium-sized companies in Taiwan with high potential and stable operations. This inaugural award evaluates companies based on market performance, fundamentals, and sustainability, acknowledging the crucial role of exemplary mid-sized companies in Taiwan’s economic development and bringing greater visibility to outstanding “hidden champions” in the region.
Taiwan’s e-Commerce industry has evolved over the past 30 years, experiencing three major waves: C2C, B2C, and now the D2C(Direct-to-Consumer) trend. As a key player in digital transformation for retail, 91APP is at the forefront of the D2C wave, leveraging its SaaS service model to help many medium and large physical retail brands and channel clients enter the D2C e-Commerce market. Through its OMO (Offline-Merge-Online / Online-Merge-Offline / Offline and Online Merge Together) strategy, 91APP enables omni-channel operational efficiency.
91APP focuses on serving medium and large physical retail brands and channel clients, uniquely integrating "software" and "services" to offer two major enterprise-level solutions: “Commerce Solution” and “Marketing Solution.” By starting with the perspective of physical retail, 91APP helps brands integrate and connect their existing complex systems with e-Commerce systems, enabling rapid and effective launch of D2C e-Commerce operations, omni-channel management, deep membership engagement, and significant sales growth. This approach has proven highly effective for medium and large retail brands undergoing digital transformation.
Led by founder and chairman Steven Ho, 91APP’s management team boasts nearly 30 years of e-Commerce experience. Steven, a serial internet entrepreneur, is widely recognized as the godfather of Taiwanese e-Commerce. His entrepreneurial journey began in 1998 with the founding of “Ubid” and “Monday Tech”, which became Taiwan’s largest C2C and B2C e-Commerce platforms at the time, later acquired by eBay and Yahoo, respectively. In 2008, Steven was invited to serve as the first General Manager of Yahoo! Taiwan’s e-Commerce business group, where he led the group to achieve a GMV of over NT$50 billion in 2010, establishing it as Taiwan’s largest e-Commerce conglomerate. In 2013, Steven founded 91APP, which has since become Taiwan’s leading D2C SaaS service provider, supporting numerous international brand groups and large retail channels in their rapid digital transformation and establishment of physical e-Commerce, with an annual gross merchandise volume exceeding NT$20 billion. In 2021, 91APP successfully went public, becoming the first native SaaS software company to be listed in Taiwan.
As Taiwan’s e-Commerce sector continues to grow, the growth rate of brick-and-mortar e-Commerce (D2C) has already surpassed that of general e-Commerce. 91APP has helped many medium and large physical retail brands and channel clients swiftly enter the D2C space, not only demonstrating operational success but also actively expanding D2C-related solutions to address client pain points and infusing new growth momentum into the company. Looking forward, 91APP will focus on advancing two major initiatives: “RMN 3.0” and “Retail AI.”
Moreover, 91APP has been actively integrating sustainability issues into its corporate development. Recently, the company released its second independently compiled “2023 Sustainability Report,” following the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) industry metrics, benchmarking against domestic and international trends and standards. The content of the report has also been assured by an independent third party. 91APP will continue to deepen its efforts in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, striving to create maximum value for stakeholders, and will keep refining its core business while working with brand clients to reach the next peak of growth together.