Taiwanese entertainment companies showed at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest in Taipei how a single book can branch into stage plays, streaming series, fragrances and travel itineraries, mapping a cross-sector intellectual property strategy modeled in part on South Korea’s three-decade-old approach, Variety reported.
Mimi Wang, COO of Taiwanese IP development company IPis Innovation, said the goal behind developing IP is for the industry to thrive collectively. “The original intention behind developing IP is for the industry to thrive together, so everyone can make money,” Wang said. The approach draws partly from South Korea, where IP adaptation began 30 years ago and where policies brought fashion and electronics industries into cultural product development, fueling the Korean Wave.
Books as the Cheapest Entry Point
IPis typically starts with books, which Wang said offer a lower-cost way to find stories that already have built-in readers. A stage production then tests audience demand through ticket sales before the company moves into screen adaptations and related products. The company’s stage play “Marital Lost Love,” based on a book by psychiatrist Deng Hui-wen, sold out three runs, prompting IPis to extend the project with a podcast and two fragrances tied to the production.
Five Awards for “Do You Still Love Me?”
The company’s series project “Do You Still Love Me?” was developed from a novel written as the story source. The project took home five awards at TCCF Pitching in 2025, the most of any project that year, among them the udnFunLife IP Potential Award. Wang said the pitch worked because it told a clear, engaging story and demonstrated how it could reach audiences and open business opportunities. Planned extensions include brand partnerships, product placement, a revival of the reality show “Love Battle,” a related feature film titled “99 Days to Countdown,” and a honeymoon travel itinerary built with tourism partners.
IPis Blends Cultural Identity with Artistic Projects
Wang said IPis Innovation’s development plan rests on three pillars: emotional resonance, ESG and Taiwanese values. For Taiwanese identity, she pointed to “Siwei Street No. 1” by Yang Shuang-zi, author of the National Book Award winner “Taiwan Travelogue.” The novel follows five women sharing a house in Taichung. Along with a stage adaptation, IPis intends food events based on a Japanese colonial-era Taiwanese cookbook that appears in the story, as well as a Taiwanese banquet, an exhibition, fragrance products and character booklets. Japanese partners have already shown interest in licensing or other collaboration.
Profitability Through “One Source, Multiple Uses”
Erica Wang, CEO of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, which organizes TCCF, said a successful investment needs three conditions: profitability, stability and growth. “In the IP field, we need to find that formula for profitability through a ‘one source, multiple uses’ approach,” she said.
Owen Lee, chair of udnFunLife, the events and ticketing division of Taiwan’s United Daily News Group, said his firm concentrates on cross-industry IP applications spanning theater, exhibitions, experiences and merchandise, while original creative work stays with the creators. For investors, Lee said extending an IP depends partly on whether the rights are available. The company pursues priority rights to develop extensions and verifies that adaptation and sequel rights are clear, along with whether permissions for performers, characters and music would need to be renegotiated for each new use. Lee also weighs an IP’s “spillover value”—whether audiences recognize it and whether its premise adapts easily to other formats. A clear, accessible title can cut the marketing needed to explain a project to new audiences, he said, while cost and timing shape which extension fits. He cited an exhibition built around the Taiwanese horror film “The Rope Curse 3” before its release and a planned mobile VR experience around “The Rope Curse 4.” Lee sees strong potential in Taiwan’s live-action film, TV and theater IP, whereas character-based properties and animation still have room to grow.
Questions Readers Ask About Taiwan’s IP Expansion
Erica Wang, CEO of TAICCA, described it as the formula for profitability in the IP field, where a single original work—such as a book—spawns stage plays, series, fragrances, exhibitions and travel products.
Which project won the most awards at TCCF Pitching in 2025? The series project “Do You Still Love Me?” won five awards, more than any other project that year, including the udnFunLife IP Potential Award.
What are the three conditions TAICCA says a successful IP investment needs? Erica Wang named profitability, stability and growth as the three key conditions.
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