Emerging-Stock Applications Could Top 100: Connect with Major Trends and Build Scale

I just took a look at the figures. In ROC year 113 (2024), 83 companies applied for emerging-stock registration. In ROC year 114 (2025), 81 companies applied. By January 22 of ROC year 115 (2026), 18 companies had applied. The 2026 total looks very likely to exceed 100 and set a record. In 2025, 45 companies applied for exchange listing, including the Taiwan Innovation Board, and 44 applied for OTC listing. The combined total of 89 may already be a record. There are 1,044 companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, 876 on the OTC market, and 356 on the Emerging Stock Board: 2,276 in total. Securities firms now have many deals in their pipelines but a severe shortage of advisory staff. The accounting firms upstream of these teams are also severely short-staffed. Medium-sized and large securities firms have therefore begun selecting which deals to take. Companies that are not large enough have to ask around to find a securities firm willing to accept them. The number of exchange-listed, OTC-listed, and emerging-stock companies keeps rising. Companies outside the major trends receive little attention. Thirty years ago, before the establishment of the Taipei Exchange’s predecessor, there may have been only two or three hundred exchange-listed companies. Thirty years later, the combined number has grown tenfold. Yet capital is increasingly concentrated in large technology stocks such as TSMC, leaving smaller companies even less favored by the capital markets. Many companies trade actively on the Emerging Stock Board, only to enter a deep freeze shortly after an exchange or OTC listing. I have two suggestions: 1. Find a way to connect with the major trends. Whatever you do, try to make TSMC your customer—even if your business is food or clothing. 2. The key is to keep increasing your scale. A company with little revenue and little profit will struggle to attract the market’s attention.