[Editor’s Note] Mouser Electronics, a global authorized distributor celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, has grown from a garage with two or three employees to a multi-billion dollar, top-10 global distributor with 28 offices and over 4,000 employees worldwide. In addition to quickly providing the latest components, the company creates digital content and shares related materials to deliver the latest technologies to its customers, and also provides various sponsorships to foster future talent. To this end, our magazine met with Daphne Tien, VP of Marketing and Business Development for APAC at Mouser Electronics, who visited Korea to attend the Korea Electronics Show 2024 (KES2024) to learn more about Mouser’s services and future plans.


■ As a global authorized distributor, Mouser celebrates its 60th anniversary this year and has grown into one of the top 10 global distributors. Congratulations. I would like to hear about your thoughts and the efforts you have made to grow Mouser.

Mouser was founded in 1964. It has had a long journey to get to where it is today. In 2000, it was acquired by TTI, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and has continued to grow.

In the past, our main products were passive components and electronic parts, but since 2000, we have been analyzing and communicating with customers and engineers to find out what they need, and supplying them with the semiconductor products they want.

This is a key to success, over the past 60 years we have been involved with over 1,200 different manufacturing brands and franchises, which has helped most of the businesses grow, and our focus is on MPI products. This is also a differentiating factor from other competitors.

Our focus is on new products.

We are the first to put the latest technology on our website. Most companies only release products to the top, but we know how important it is to cover the latest technology.

We need to market the latest technologies so that we can design these products and find new applications.

These efforts have enabled us to achieve the number one market share in the Asia Pacific region and India today.

Of course, oddly enough, we have to thank all our employees for their achievements, today we have over 4,000 employees worldwide and it is thanks to their hard work that we have been able to achieve these achievements.

We're very unique among e-commerce companies in that we don't actually have any external sales. This is why customer service is so important to our business.

So of course we want our customers' estimates while our team works to support them. Our business model is e-commerce, but it has to be different from our competitors.

Our focus is on new products, so we approach new products very closely, without the manufacturer.

We wanted to be the first distributor to put the latest products on our website and did a lot of marketing.

We do a lot of promotion to inform our audience and buyers about what new products are available and what new technologies are available. And then of course, after we have more customers, customer service will take care of the customers.

■ Recently, the electronic components industry is being asked to transform into new technologies due to the emergence of new technologies such as AI and autonomous driving. As a supplier of electronic components, Mouser is likely to experience these new trends more quickly. I would like to hear from the vice president about the direction of the current changes in electronic technology.

We don't focus on any specific application because our customer base is so large, but of course we always follow the latest technologies.

In recent years, many people have been talking about autonomous driving and AI.

As AI becomes more like the computing era, fast calculations and of course power management will also become very important.

Autonomous driving is now something that everyone, especially all automakers, think is very important in the Korean market. There are very big brands in Korea.

Of course, there are many developments when looking at global E-mobility and mobility.

Turning left and right is relevant for different countries, as they have different policies. I know the current development is at level 3, which is considered the most advanced, and everyone is working on level 4 right now.

On the other hand, when we talk about autonomy, we are still trying to get to level 5.

It's very important to have a sensor because you have to look at everything around you.

Of course, power management and battery management are also very important. Also, manufacturers are still developing methods to extend battery life.

We hope this will be the next trend. Whether it will be the craft of the future or another new craft. We are looking forward to it.

■ Mouser is actively involved in providing information for developers as well as supplying parts. In particular, I understand that they are engaged in various activities such as technology series and e-books. Please introduce the activities they are engaged in.

We work with leading global manufacturers.

Of course, we have a lot of primary technology and content or technical content, white papers or e-books, and we also have a very strong marketing, technical marketing team. We also start other technical content, and globally, we also work very closely with leading institutions or application or R&D centers or experts, and we work with them and try to get very high technology and share it with customers around the world.

Not only is the Mouser website a very welcoming website where you can find and buy components, but it also has an application and technology website to share the latest technologies.

For example, we talk about EVs and we talk about automation. For cars, if you want to learn how to design things like dashboards or car lights, you can click through and get all the structural diagrams, and there are also recommended products for new design engineers.

Maybe you don't know anything at all or maybe you just want to know how to design.

And in addition to that, there is a Korean content hub specifically for the Korean market.

We create a lot of content at Mouser, and we also collect a lot of content from manufacturer sites.

So I want to share this technical content so that the audience can learn more about the market trends. Also, there is a lot of content in the partner block, so engineers are welcome to visit the block and get more information.

■ Looking at the technology introduction provided by Mouser, there is a lot of talk about recent mobility changes such as SDV. How do you think mobility technology will develop in the future, and what parts will have opportunities?

Actually, these questions have been answered before.

We think autonomous driving is all about IoT, sensors, and we also think product responsibility is very important.

Because even these functions are everything to our lives.

So it's really important to make sure that the components we use in our application are ACQ compliant.

Knowing the car class, not all components can be used. So that's what I want to emphasize, and that's what engineers need to pay attention to.

■ Mouser is leading the way in fostering talent and developing education in the electronics field. Through this, it seems that Mouser is actively participating in social contribution. I would like to hear more about Mouser's social contribution activities.

Our business is not limited to customers purchasing parts from our website. It is also very important to educate students as future engineers. They may not know where to find products before they graduate from school.

That's why we support or sponsor many activities around the world.

In Korea, we sponsor the Korean Robotics Championship and the College Card Racing Competition, so we hope that students will understand and know where to find the latest technology when designing. We hope that this sponsorship will help students here learn.

■ I would like to hear about the outlook for the electronics components industry next year and Mouser’s plans for next year from the Vice President’s perspective.

For electronic components, there have been significant shortages during the pandemic.

A lot of people have been buying that inventory, and what we've found over the past two years since the pandemic ended is that there's a lot of accessible inventory.

So business hasn't been all that positive for the last two years.

On the other hand, we expect the market to return.

Because we believe the economy has already hit bottom.

Especially for passives and connectors for semiconductors, some are still stable and some are still waiting, depending on the type of application.

So we all think. This is a market that will be higher or growing in the coming year and for most of us, inventory is key for customers to come to Mouser to buy as we focus on small quantities.

Websites can be packed and shipped the same day, so this is the crux of how important warehouse management is.

So for us, we've already invested in expanding our warehouse since last year and it will be ready in the first quarter of next year. It's double the size of our previous warehouse. It'll be 2 million square feet.

At the same time, we implement a lot of industrial automation in our warehouse to improve efficiency. While you have a lot of products, we want to be faster and more efficient.

So that's what warehouse investment is all about. Most of it is focused on continuing to provide excellence to the customer.

■ Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to the readers?

We want engineers to think of Mouser first when they first want to design. If you can't find the product you want on the Mouser website, don't develop it. Instead, visit the Mouser website and tell us what you want to develop. We will try to supply the item you want.