Taiwan and its related exchange traded fund (ETF) were once known for cheap manufacturing of name-brand goods, but the country’s domestic technology companies are looking to form a global name brand of their own.

Companies in Taiwan are seeking a more direct route to consumers so they can rake in the profit potential of a global brand, reports Ashlee Vance for The New York Times.

Some Taiwanese companies are already developing reputations as tech leaders of tomorrow with names like Asustek, innovator of the “netbook,” and Acer, manufacturer of powerful yet cheap PCs that may become the world’s secondlargest PC maker.

For the netbooks market, Acer and Asustek hold two-thirds of this nascent market, and sales are still high. Asustek was the fastest-growing PC company in Europe and Acer is becoming the fastest-growing PC maker overall. But these companies have not matched the marketing pizazz of larger, more established name brands. Their brands remain stronger in Asia and sales are more oriented to retailers or other intermediaries.

The computer industry in Taiwan is also diversifying in order to escape declining profit margins and they have begun by hiring thousands of software developers to build up tech services.

• iShares MSCI Taiwan Index (EWT): up 42% year-to-date; information technology is 57.2% of the fund

Max Chen contributed to this article.

Tags: Asia, Emerging Markets, EWT, Global ETFs, Taiwan, Technology