Ritek

RITEK Corporation manufactures optical discs such as CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, HD DVD, Blu-ray Disc and Blu-ray M-Disc, storage cards such as CF (CompactFlash) cards, SD cards and MMC cards (MultiMediaCard), memory stick and consumer electronics. Ritek also produces solar modules and touch panel products such as passive matrix OLED and ITO glass. Ritek has also launched a few products in nano- and biotechnology.
The company's English name is a portmanteau of the words “right” and “technology”.
Ritek Corporation was established in 1988 with efforts to manufacture Compact discs. In 1990 the company produced the first compact disc in Taiwan.
In November 2005 the company had a market share of 20 percent in rewritable DVDs and CD-RWs and was so the biggest disc-manufacturer worldwide.
2009 juridical disputes with Toshiba about licences were.
In September 2020 Ritek has 5,900 employees.
Trade marks and brand.
RITEK, RIDATA, TRAXDATA, ARITA, imation (since November 2019)
Prehistory and start.
Yeh Ching-Tai, founder of RITEK, started to manufacture and market vinyl records in 1957. In 1958, he published the album “Green Island Serenade”, performed by Zi Wei, a famous female singer of the time. At that time, the production process was completely manual. Waste gases and toxic chemical solutions were all over the manufacturing environment at the high temperature of . Meanwhile, the materials deteriorated easily and as a result, the yield was low. Quality depended entirely on the experience of manufacturing supervisors and the process cost a lot of time and money. During this period, Yeh Ching-Tai made improvements introducing new technologies and machines from Japan, looking for new materials and developing new manufacturing processes. Eventually the vinyl record industry in Taiwan finally began to produce better products in improved manufacturing environments.
Due to the insufficient quantity of recording equipment and facilities in Taiwan at that time, Mr. Yeh Ching-Tai felt it would be necessary to preserve Peking Opera, Nan-Guan and Bei-Guan as educational and cultural heritage. In 1980, he invested a significant amount in the creation of Platinum Studio in 1980, by importing from Switzerland a 24-track recorder. It was the first multitrack recorder in Taiwan. The studio also invited technicians from Japan to give instructions. It was at that juncture that Mr. Yeh Ching-Tai learned that the Japanese people were starting to produce Compact discs. In 1985, the R&D and ramp-up of compact discs were transforming the record industry as a new technology. Mr. Yeh Ching-Tai realized that digitalization was the trend for the record industry and he immediately initiated on R&D activities on compact discs.
In 1988 the Ritek Corporation was established, in 1990 the company produced the first compact disc in Taiwan and put an end to Taiwan's reliance on imports from Japan. This also directly contributed to the booming of the local music market.
Milestones.
Before founding.
1952
1960
1980
Since founding.
1988
1989
1990
1991
1994
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2006
2007
2008
2009
2011
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019