Creative Expo Taiwan 2025 concluded with both its Cultural Curation section at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Brand Licensing & Design section at Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1 drawing large crowds right up to the final day. The event attracted a total of 650,000 visits, with total business transactions reaching NT$1.35 billion — a 12.5% increase from last year’s NT$1.2 billion. More than 28,000 industry professionals and buyers attended, setting new records in exhibition area, number of participants, booths used, and international exhibitor count.
According to the Ministry of Culture noted that this year’s Brand Licensing & Design exhibition returned to Taipei at a larger, more accessible venue — Nangang Exhibition Center — achieving an all-time high in attendance. From the first public opening on 7 August 2025, visitor queues never stopped. To ease the heavy lines, some of which began forming the night before, the Expo arranged an additional air-conditioned floor to shelter visitors from the summer heat. At peak times, over 6,000 people queued in an orderly, courteous manner, creating a remarkable “New Cultural & Creative Movement” scene unique to Taiwan’s exhibition culture.
The Brand Licensing & Design section showcased Taiwan’s original character IPs and creative brands alongside exhibitors from 10 countries and regions, including Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, and Poland. In total, more than 650 brands occupied over 930 booths, setting new benchmarks for visitor numbers and domestic/overseas buyer engagement. The newly introduced “IP-Star Pop Park” featured 34 curated Taiwanese character IPs in a unique showcase-window format, demonstrating commercial application potential and attracting high public interest, photo opportunities, and deeper engagement with the IP universes. The seamless integration of B2C sales and B2B licensing impressed and earned praise from international exhibitors.
Throughout the Expo, more than 180 international buyers participated in curated business-matching activities, resulting in over 1,400 sessions — including more than 1,300 one-on-one meetings between domestic and overseas buyers. “IP-Star Pop Park” alone facilitated 84 successful deals between IPs such as Balloonmon, Majimeow, Shaogao, and Lusasa, and well-known domestic and international companies, highlighting the vitality and broad market appeal of Taiwan’s IP licensing and creative brand sector.
Meanwhile, at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, the Cultural Curation section explored Taiwan’s water-based cultural ecosystem and everyday life through four integrated thematic exhibitions. Visitors experienced the island’s maritime heritage in The Island of Seascapes, immersed themselves in the mist-laden high mountain forests recreated in Through the Realm of Mist, discovered the spiritual resonance of rivers and landscapes in The Spirit of Water, and explored regional creativity through Taiwan as Endless Streams, which featured selections from the “Top 100 Cultural Bases”. Many products in these exhibitions sold out before the event concluded, and the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute’s “Daily Craft+” pop-up store also enjoyed exceptional sales.
Across the event period, over 125 lectures, forums, performances, workshops, guided tours, and other activities were held to capacity audiences. Highlights included The Ocean Method lecture series in the Cultural Curation section, where experts from various fields examined pathways for bringing Taiwan’s culture to the global stage through the lens of Kuroshio culture; and the “Character IP Forum” in the Brand Licensing & Design section, focusing on IP creation, monetization, cross-industry collaboration, and creative marketing — together drawing more than 2,400 participants. Creative Expo Taiwan 2025 concluded successfully, and the next edition will take place in August 2026 in Taipei’s Nangang Exhibition Center and other venues.
