Taiwanese companies laid out how original stories can grow from books into stage plays, series, fragrances and even travel itineraries at a Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) session on cross-sector intellectual property in Taipei.
“The original intention behind developing IP is for the industry to thrive together, so everyone can make money,” said Mimi Wang, COO of Taiwanese IP development company IPis Innovation.
Wang said the approach was partly modeled on South Korea, where IP adaptation began 30 years ago. “Policies brought in industries such as fashion and electronics to collaborate and invest in developing cultural products. That was also the origin of the Korean Wave,” she said.
IPis often starts with books, which Wang said offer a cheaper way to find stories that already have readers. A stage production can then test audience demand through ticket sales before the company moves into screen adaptations and related products.
The company’s stage play “Marital Lost Love” is based on a book by psychiatrist Deng Hui-wen. After three runs that Wang said sold out, IPis extended the project with a podcast and two fragrances tied to the production.
Its series project “Do You Still Love Me?” was developed from a novel written as the story source. The project won five awards at TCCF Pitching in 2025, more than any other project that year, including the udnFunLife IP Potential Award. Wang said the pitch worked because it told a clear, engaging story and showed how it could reach audiences and open up business opportunities.
Wang said plans for the project include brand partnerships and product placement, a revival of the reality show “Love Battle” and a related feature film, “99 Days to Countdown.” The film’s honeymoon trip could also become a travel itinerary built with tourism partners.
“Our IP development plan has three main pillars: emotional resonance, ESG [environmental, social and governance] and Taiwanese values,” Wang said.
For Taiwanese identity, she pointed to “Siwei Street No. 1,” by Yang Shuang-zi, the author of National Book Award winner “Taiwan Travelogue.” The novel follows five women sharing a house in Taichung. IPis plans a stage version alongside food events drawing on a Japanese colonial-era Taiwanese cookbook featured in the story.
Other ideas include a Taiwanese banquet, an exhibition, scent-based products and character booklets. Wang said Japanese partners had already shown interest in licensing or other forms of collaboration.
“A successful investment needs three key conditions: profitability, stability and growth,” said Erica Wang, CEO of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), which organizes TCCF. “In the IP field, we need to find that formula for profitability through a ‘one source, multiple uses’ approach.”
Owen Lee, chair of udnFunLife, the events and ticketing arm of Taiwan’s United Daily News Group, said his company focuses on cross-industry uses of IP, including theater, exhibitions, experiences and merchandise, while leaving the original creative work to creators. It invests in projects and helps work out how to bring them to audiences and sell them, he said.
For investors, Lee said, extending an IP depends partly on whether the rights are available. His company seeks priority rights to develop extensions and checks whether adaptation and sequel rights are clear, and 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 also shape which extension fits.
He cited an exhibition built around Taiwanese horror film “The Rope Curse 3” before its release, using material from the franchise to build interest. A mobile VR experience was being planned around “The Rope Curse 4,” he said.
Lee said he sees strong potential in Taiwan’s live-action film, TV and theater IP, while character-based properties and animation still have room to grow. For Mimi Wang, the starting point remains the audience: creators, she said, should ask what viewers want to see and how a personal story can speak to a wider public.
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