16 1 月 iMarts AI Technology Leverages Multilingual SaaS Service to Enter International Markets

Have you ever been stuck in the following situations when traveling abroad: struggling to order a dish without understanding a word on the menu; wasting time to search for a certain souvenir on the street; experiencing a mental burnout when comprehending what Google translation is talking about?

You are not alone since iMarts founder Muriel Kuan was also disturbed by the same hassles that get in your way to an enjoyable trip. She thus started to look for a better way to build the bridge between languages. It all started with a critical question: what kind of unsatisfied demands that travelers would have when arriving at the destination, where the real adventure begins?

iMarts Team

The Patent Multilingual System Powered by Cutting-Edge AI Technology

Muriel observed that most travelers had encountered difficulties tackling fragmented information such as scattered name cards, menus, and product descriptions. She came up with the solution using QR Code for multilingual recognition, which can simultaneously reduce business costs and provide sufficient information to travelers. Her solution is easy-to-use, at-almost-no-cost, and applicable to a wide range of varieties. The powerful multilingual SaaS service has obtained patents in Taiwan, China, Japan, and the United States.

The multilingual SaaS service is including F&B NLG(Neural Language Generation) which composed of three layers of structure, establishes a “Knowledge Graph” based on a large quantity of data with relation. The first layer is to process languages(NLP). The second is to comprehend the meaning(NLU). The last one is to generate translated texts(NLG). For instance, creating a dish story is to introduce its culture, entailing its ingredient, flavor, texture or even the historical context. Thus the translation of “Youtiao,” a kind of deep-fried Chinese donut stick, should explicitly tell users what kind of food it is, instead of just transliterating it.

Muriel has partnered with KAMI.AI as a core technology provider and investor to provide the cutting-edge service. Alex, the founder of KAMI, points out, “iMarts is not only translating words but also culture, which is quite different from other existing services in the market.” After iMarts established the knowledge graph, it introduced KAMI’s AI technology to train the machine learning system, generating cultural-loaded contents with natural language processing.

Alex (Founder of KAMI AI) & Muriel (Founder of iMarts)

Reaching Clients through Destination Management & Marketing Organizations

The iMarts Intelligent Multilingual SaaS Service is tailored to merchants’ needs of entering new markets. Muriel points out that the first step is to target at destination management and marketing organizations (DMOs) such as shopping district development association. The second step is to reach local merchants. Since DMOs are in good relationship with local merchants, it will be easier for them to adopt the service to provide a comfortable multilingual shopping experience to all customers.

Muriel’s first client, the second-generation successor to a seafood restaurant in Hualien, came to her due to the market demand. Since he was the chef and the only English speaker in the restaurant, he was often interrupted at work and called out from the kitchen to communicate with customers from overseas. So he started to seek restaurant partners in Hualien to co-develop multilingual menu during the Covid-19 pandemic when the number of customers were strikingly decreasing. He anticipated that the new menu system would change the disturbing situation in the future.

Knowing this, Muriel visited the successor immediately and held several meetings within a week. She had also gained full support from the mayor of Hualien City and successfully recruited 100 merchants right in the beginning. Learning from the experience that Hualien was not the only market demanding for multilingual menu system, she further expanded her services to Taipei’s Yongkang shopping district and Ningxia shopping area, and businesses such as Taipei Sightseeing Bus. More amazingly, the Japan Tourism Agency in Okinawa has also become one of her clients.

Extending Taiwan’s Local Experience to Overseas Markets

Muriel regards the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity for travel industry because it is establishing the foundation stone by accumulating precious experiences during the lockdown to prepare for overseas expansion. Next year, iMarts will be focusing on Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong. She also presents the detailed schedule for her plan: Japan will be the short-term goal for the golden five years since it is the host country for giant international events including Tokyo 2021 Olympics and Expo 2025 Osaka. The neighboring Korea is on the list too. Secondly, iMarts will expand its business to Southeast Asian countries in 2022 and has kickstarted the deployment in Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. In 2024, Paris Olympics will be iMarts’ opportunity to expand to European markets.

iMarts is developing its business from Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, to Europe. With these areas neighboring to China, iMarts will draw even more clients thanks to the enormous Chinese market. Muriel says, “Our biggest advantage is that Taiwan shares a similar language system with China, which makes the communication seamless.” iMarts’ key to stay ahead of the game in the travel industry is simple and clear: obtaining patents, being the pioneer, and integrating AI to increase technological barriers.

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