Taiwan POI chain names are searchable or displayed with branch names when using BPMF/Zhuyin input

Product / Platform

HERE POI map content and place search data for Taiwan, where POI names include Mandarin Chinese names, BPMF/Zhuyin transliteration strings, and chain or branch naming attributes.

Answer

For Taiwan POI chains, distinguish the chain name from the branch name by comparing the full POI name with its normalized BPMF/Zhuyin string and identifying any location identifier separated from the chain by “-” or an equivalent branch delimiter. If the you do not want branch names to be displayed or searchable through BPMF input, keep only the chain name in the chain-name field and separate the branch-specific text into the branch-name field.

Symptoms

A Taiwan chain POI is displayed with both the chain name and branch name instead of the chain name only.
A user can search for a POI by entering the BPMF/Zhuyin of the branch name, even though you expect only the chain name to be searchable.
Search results return “Carrefour – Ban Ciao Branch” when the expected display name is “Carrefour”.
Search results return “CARPLUS – Taipei Jian Bei Branch” when the expected display name is “CARPLUS”.
POI names with a hyphen, dash, or location identifier are treated as one full searchable name instead of separate chain and branch components.

Root cause

In Taiwan POI data, some chain POIs include a branch or location identifier as part of the full name. The branch name may be separated from the chain name by “-”, “–”, or another delimiter, for example “Chain Name - Branch Name”. When BPMF/Zhuyin strings are generated or handled against the full POI name, the branch component can also become searchable. This is expected if the POI name is not separated into chain-name and branch-name components before search/display handling.

Impact

If the chain and branch names are not separated, you may see branch names displayed in places where they expect a chain-only label. Users may also be able to find a POI by entering BPMF/Zhuyin for the branch name, which may be undesired for who want only brand or chain-level discoverability.

Recommended actions

1. Use the BPMF/Zhuyin reference data for the POI name.
2. Find the corresponding BPMF strings of the POI names in column D.
3. Normalize the BPMF strings in column E so that comparison and matching are consistent across entries.
4. In column F, distinguish the chain name or POI name:
If the POI belongs to a chain, enter the chain name only.
* If the POI does not belong to a chain, keep the POI name.
5. In column G, distinguish the branch name, if present.
6. Treat text after the branch delimiter as branch-specific when it represents a location identifier, station name, district name, road name, mall name, or similar branch descriptor.
7. Validate the result by confirming that the chain name remains searchable and displayable, while the branch name is not used for customer-facing display or BPMF search where you have requested chain-name-only behavior.

Expected behavior

For POI chains such as “Carrefour – Ban Ciao Branch” and “CARPLUS – Taipei Jian Bei Branch”, the chain name should be distinguished from the branch name. If you request chain-only display and search, the displayed/searchable chain values should be “Carrefour” and “CARPLUS”, while “Ban Ciao Branch” and “Taipei Jian Bei Branch” should be stored or handled as branch names only.

Unexpected behavior

The full POI string, including the branch name, is used as the display name or BPMF-searchable name when you expect only the chain name to be visible and searchable.

Additional guidance

BPMF stands for Bopomofo, also called Zhuyin or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols. It is commonly used for Taiwanese Mandarin input. For Taiwan POIs, BPMF strings must be handled consistently with POI naming rules because a full POI name may include both a brand-level chain name and a branch-level location identifier. The delimiter alone should not be the only decision factor. Confirm that the text after the delimiter is actually a branch/location descriptor and not part of the brand name.

Keywords / tags

Taiwan POI, BPMF, Bopomofo, Zhuyin, Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, branch name, chain name, POI search, place search, Taiwan map content, POI display name, transliteration, normalized BPMF, location identifier, HERE POI data