# Sega Cheng

> Sega Cheng is the Taiwanese co-founder, chairman and CEO of iKala, an AI company that began in online karaoke and repeatedly reinvented itself around cloud, data and marketing technology. A former Google engineer with a Stanford computer science master's, Cheng helped build Google Transit and worked on Android's multimedia framework before returning to Taiwan. He now combines company-building with industry leadership as chair of TiEA, board service, books and public advocacy for Taiwan to become an exporter of AI systems as well as hardware.

- **Role:** Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO at iKala
- **Organizations:** iKala, Taiwan Internet and E-Commerce Association (TiEA), ADLINK Technology, Rayark, Cresclab, Google
- **From:** Taipei, Taiwan
- **Nationality:** Taiwanese
- **Education:** Bachelor's in Information Management, National Taiwan University, Master's in Computer Science, specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning, Stanford University, PhD in Information Management, National Taiwan University
- **Known for:** First engineering speaker from Taiwan to appear at Google I/O., Helped build Google Transit and worked on the Android multimedia framework., Built iKala through multiple business-model changes into an AI company serving more than 1,000 enterprises and 50,000 brands, according to the company.

## Career timeline

- **2005-2007** — Studied computer science at Stanford and completed a master's focused on AI and machine learning.
- **2006-2012** — Worked at Google in Silicon Valley and Taiwan on machine learning in Search, Google Transit and Android's multimedia framework; became the first engineering speaker from Taiwan at Google I/O.
- **2012** — Left Google and co-founded iKala, initially building a consumer online-karaoke service.
- **2013** — Led iKala's move into mobile after membership growth on the original web service stalled.
- **2015 onward** — Steered iKala from consumer products toward B2B cloud, data, marketing technology and AI services.
- **2020** — iKala raised a $17 million Series B and was named a Gartner Cool Vendor.
- **2023** — Received the Global Views Young Entrepreneur Award.
- **2024** — iKala closed a Series B+ round of more than $20 million led by Chunghwa Telecom; Cheng co-authored the TMMLU+ benchmark paper for Traditional Chinese language models.
- **2025** — Elected chair of the Taiwan Internet and E-Commerce Association and published the Japanese edition of his first AI book.
- **2026** — Became iKala's group chairman, was selected as an Eisenhower Global Fellow, spoke at Stanford about Taiwan's AI future, published a second book and launched the Sega on AI podcast.

## Achievements

- First engineering speaker from Taiwan to appear at Google I/O.
- Helped build Google Transit and worked on the Android multimedia framework.
- Built iKala through multiple business-model changes into an AI company serving more than 1,000 enterprises and 50,000 brands, according to the company.
- Recipient of the 2015 Pan Wen-Yuan Award.
- Recipient of the 2023 Global Views Young Entrepreneur Award.
- Selected as a 2026 Eisenhower Global Fellow.
- Co-author of the 2024 TMMLU+ benchmark research for Traditional Chinese large language models.
- Author or co-author of AI books published in multiple languages.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Sega on AI was publishing new interview episodes on a biweekly schedule.
- **2026-08** — Held a Taipei event for his second book, The New Business Opportunities Under Intelligence Inflation.
- **2026-07** — Published The New Business Opportunities Under Intelligence Inflation in Traditional Chinese.
- **2026-04** — Spoke at Stanford about moving Taiwan from a 'silicon shield' toward an 'AI brain' and exporting sovereign AI systems.
- **2026-03** — Opened iKala Connection Day by arguing that AI is becoming infrastructure and that 2026 marks a shift from AI assistance to AI delegation.
- **2026-01** — Named a 2026 Eisenhower Global Fellow, representing Taiwan's technology sector in a US-based exchange program.

## Links

- Website: https://ikala.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sccheng
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/segacheng

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sega-cheng
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27