Alexa
  • Directory of Taiwan

President visits Taiwan startup, praises young entrepreneurs

Tsai Ing-wen visited Dcard, a social networking website that is popular among university students in Taiwan

  1579
(L-R) President Tsai Ing-wen and Dcard's co-founder Kytu Lin (Screen capture from Tsai Ing-wen's Instagram page)

(L-R) President Tsai Ing-wen and Dcard's co-founder Kytu Lin (Screen capture from Tsai Ing-wen's Instagram page)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited the headquarters of Dcard, a popular social networking website in Taiwan, on Tuesday (July 9).

Taiwan’s young people are good at spotting problems and conceiving solutions, said Tsai via a Facebook post on Wednesday. They are totally capable of shining on the international stage, being innovative and taking action, she added.

The president has embarked on a series of visits to the offices of tech giants and startups in recent months, including Facebook and Whoscall. The idea is to listen to stories from young entrepreneurs and obtain a better understanding of Taiwan’s startups and social media websites, Tsai said.

The popular anonymous social networking platform, Dcard, was established in 2011 by Kytu Lin (林裕欽) and Yoyo Chien (簡勤佑). They were both students at the National Taiwan University at the time. Dcard services are available exclusively to university students.

Meeting with Lin, now Dcard’s chief executive officer, Tsai said she admired the fact he could run a company at the tender age of 27.

Tsai also “showed off” her doctoral certificate from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) for the first time, in an apparent move to shoot down earlier suspicion that she never obtained the diploma in the first place. A few months ago, a political commentator speculated that Tsai might have forged her doctoral dissertation.

LSE later issued a statement confirming that Tsai graduated from the school in 1984 with a PhD in law. In 2016, LSE also congratulated Tsai for being elected president via a notice on the school website.

Filling up the “skills” section as part of the information required for creating a Dcard account, Tsai said before she became a politician, her main skill had been trade negotiations. “Now my skill is being a president.”