IT-stories. Part 1
"That's our territory!"Taipei; 09 June 2004
To play a dirty trick with a competitor is the holy of holies. In Taiwan, that is done with a special Asian charm.
At the September's Computex, sort of a colorful "sumo wrestlers" show was played at the ASUS party. A wrestler wearing a T-shirt with the ASUS logo was methodically crushing rivals - one wearing the "MXI" logo, with "Gigabite" on the other's. Of course that even was reported, and the photos appeared in Internet.
In 2004, in the evening after the first day of the expo, Gigabyte grabbed all the Russian press and drove away somewhere to the mountains. In a couple of hours of riding, on their right they saw ASUS' assembly shops and their headquarter. The folks noisily discussed that all and forgot at once - it's all clear we are riding towards the northern mountains, to the estuary of Danshui river.
Some time later we got off by a restaurant at the territory of Taipei Institute of Arts. All are a bit annoyed - why have they driven us over to the middle of nowhere that you even can't escape. Well, where to escape actually? There aren't even any taxis, and you'd have to walk for at least an hour to get to the nearest underground station.
Starter is training to use chopsticks
But the cuisine proved excellent. All have long got used and even taken a liking to the Chinese menu and are expertly handling chopsticks. Starter who was the first time in Asia is trying not to lag behind the others and refuses to use a fork - finally, he stood up.. hungry. We ate it all up earlier than he somehow learned to pick up something with chopsticks. Sake and beer was finished in 10 minutes. There were 20 of us - they might have ordered some stronger drinks for us, Russian journalists, who are hardened after daily table battles. We managed to persuade Melody to fetch us a bottle of Santori, and the strain was gradually getting down.
I get out in the air for a smoke, watching the southern sky full of stars and flood of lights below. We are almost at the summit of the mountain, the huge illuminated Taipei lying below. What a beauty!
I am peering through the window-pane into the restaurant hall and understand it's high time we finished with Santori.
Separated from our table by a screen, all the top management of ASUS is there - presidents, vice-presidents, ever gloomy Alex Kim, charming Angela Xu, and a lot of people we've known. Wiping my eyes and glasses didn't help.
I through off the cigarette and bewildered moving towards Alex Kim:
- What have you been doing over here? ...
The reply he gave should be written into all the marketing textbooks on running business in Taiwan:
- That is our territory!
The intonation of Alex Kim was hard and didn't bode well. We were indeed brought to the zone of ASUS, their favorite restaurant and the sponsored university. We chatted a bit, exchanged our local phone numbers, kissed good-bye with Angela (Alex and Angela were waiting for their firstling soon), bowed with the president, and went off to our place to digest the blunder. Judging by their faces, everybody was already aware of what had happened.
Two days later Alex Kim confessed I was the only person who dared to come up and greet ASUS - "..you are careless - you can do whatever.."
The role of journalists is similar to peacemakers, OSCE observers, or Red Cross officials - they are entitled to contact with all the rivalry parties simply due to their professional activities. No use taking offense. That is our right.
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