Cher Wang: Journey to Success

Early life

Born in a powerful business family on 14 September 1968, Cher Wang is the daughter of Wang Yung-Ching. Wang completed her high school education from The College Preparatory School in Oakland, California and pursued a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1981. She was hired by First International Computer (FIC), a motherboard manufacturing company, in 1982. During her job in FIC, she got the opportunity to travel to several new countries, where she was marketing the motherboard for personal computers.

Entrepreneurial Ventures

While working for FIC, Cher launched a new personal computer brand, Leo Computers. Unfortunately, it crashed shortly after the launch. But the failure could not crush Cher’s spirit. During her long trips to Europe, Cher realized that PCs were bulky and uneasy to carry, And, thus a new handheld device was needed that could be easily carried in a pocket or a briefcase. Cher pitched this idea with one of her close friends, H.T. Cho and Peter Cho. During this time, Cher was approached by an acquaintance at Microsoft, who was searching for a manufacturer to build handheld devices using Windows CE operating system. This was a turning point in Cher’s life. She saw an excellent opportunity and thus, founded her own company, HTC.

The company started out with manufacturing Notebook laptops. By 1998, it was building one of the world’s first touch and wireless hand-held devices. Like any other startup, the initial years were tough. But Wang was able to foresee the upcoming success and hence invested a huge amount of money in the business. She believed, “If you have a vision, no matter how difficult things are, it will just become a process.” With time, she realized that the laptop manufacturing business was not working according to the plan, and decided to switch her focus from building laptops to mobile phones. After a lot of struggle, HTC caught its lucky break when its first contract was signed in 2000 to produce the Compaq Aero PDA. Following this deal, HTC had become the official contract manufacturer of mobile phones and PDAs for O2, T-Mobile, Orange, and Palm. HTC had also manufactured Google’s first Android phone, the G1.

In 2007, HTC acquired Dopod International, and in the next year the company launched its first GSM mobile phone. In 2009, HTC rolled out its first touchscreen smartphone powered by Windows OS. In 2010, HTC sold over 24.6 million handsets. In 2011, Luxgen adopted the HTC smart technology to build the ‘Think Ahead’ feature for its vehicles such that the software would capture road conditions and potential hazards to its drivers. In 2011, HTC won the “Device Manufacturer of the Year” in the Global Mobile Awards. In the same year, the company became the third-largest smartphone manufacturer, after Apple and Samsung. In the third quarter of the same year, HTC became the largest smartphone vendor in the U.S. ahead of Samsung and Apple. Currently, the company is expanding in the field of Internet of Things (IoT) and virtual reality. In 2018 HTC partnered with the games and apps developer and publisher Animoca, to work in the field of games, machine learning, augmented reality blockchain, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Although HTC has of late found itself in choppy waters, it has not affected Wang’s central role in Taipei’s tech and startup ecosystem. 

One of the most powerful women in technology, and the most powerful in wireless technology, isn’t based in Silicon Valley but on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Cher Wang’s entrepreneurial venture led her to become the co-founder and chair of Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC, which at one point made one in every six smartphones sold in the US. Her journey is undoubtedly a great source of inspiration for those out there who wish to conquer the corporate world and become successful entrepreneurs. Her message to all of them is, “As entrepreneurs, we must continue to ask ourselves What’s Next? It takes humility to realize we don’t know everything, not to rest on our laurels, and to know that we must keep learning and observing. If we don’t, we can be sure some startup will be there to take our place.”

References:

An Inspiring Journey of Cher Wang

Cher Wang: A Brilliant Entrepreneur & Contributor in the Rise of Wireless Devices