Commentary

What you need to know when starting an online business

The Hong Kong start-up scene is booming. With the rise of co-work spaces like CoCoon, incubators and accelerators including Startups Unplugged and Accelerator Hong Kong, and networking groups like Startup Grind, the start-up ecosystem in Hong Kong is just beginning.

What you need to know when starting an online business

The Hong Kong start-up scene is booming. With the rise of co-work spaces like CoCoon, incubators and accelerators including Startups Unplugged and Accelerator Hong Kong, and networking groups like Startup Grind, the start-up ecosystem in Hong Kong is just beginning.

Is Click & Collect the saviour of retail?

Traditional bricks and mortar retailers are facing significant challenges due to the wave of digital disruption sweeping the industry. Shopping and spending in Hong Kong – in fact, all throughout the Asia Pacific – is shifting online as technology progresses and consumers become more digitally-savvy.

Making sense of analytics for content marketing

Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to consult Hong Kong public and private sector clients on the use of Analytics on social media and content. According to a survey of 125 marketers from social media analytics firm NetBase, 61% of marketers in the United States used some form of social media analytics but 70% of them have a difficult time to put an ROI onto their analytics program.

Four steps to taming the data explosion in Hong Kong - Part 1

By 2015 the total amount of data in the world will increase to 7.9 zettabytes, according to IDC. As Hong Kong’s business community continues to grow, with a record high of 174,031 new companies registered in the SAR last year, local enterprises are a key driver of this data-driven wave.

Ensuring business continuity in Hong Kong

It's no fun to think about all the ways your business can be disrupted – hurricanes, tsunamis, snow storms, epidemics, earthquakes, tornados, terrorism, floods, fires, even relatively minor incidents like a failed water main or a planned event like an office relocation.

Temporary work on the rise in Hong Kong

The 2014 Page Personnel Hong Kong Salary & Employment Forecast reveals there is demand and growing acceptance of temporary work in Hong Kong as a viable employment option, as cost-cuts and careful headcount planning continue to affect companies.

Leading ladies of Hong Kong's workforce

The issue of equality in the workforce is ongoing. A number of notable studies address the issue every year and inspirational female leaders have taken the headlines with their analysis of the situation.

How Hong Kong firms can protect their brands online

Social media provides companies with a wealth of opportunities to increase visibility, improve consideration, strengthen internal communication, and accelerate innovation. But, as entities as diverse as Mannings, Dolce & Gabbana, and the HK SAR government have discovered, social media can also come with a nasty bite.

Here's why women have higher earning power in Hong Kong

According to our annual 2013 Market Pulse, Hong Kong women buck an APAC-wide trend, by earning considerably more than their male counterparts.

Achieving greater women representation on Hong Kong boards

Last March 8 marked International Women's Day, an occasion where the achievements made by and for women are celebrated. But unfortunately, the latest statistics on women on boards in Hong Kong do not give much cause for jubilation.

4 approaches for Hong Kong businesses to benefit from localised SEO

The latest numbers indicate that over 80% of people with computer access use search engines to find local businesses. Local consumers are going to go online to find businesses that have what they need and are close to where they live.

Using the Hong Kong disadvantage to your advantage

Last article I wrote was an introduction into the potential benefits of strategic partnerships in business. Partnerships, if selected, structured and managed well, can provide a company with the necessary tools to expand its market or capabilities without actually needing to physically build up or develop those tools; you just leverage your partner’s complementary capabilities to accelerate and reach your targets.

Why I decided to do business in Hong Kong

In June of 2013 I opened the first international office for my firm here in Hong Kong, which had previously operated from a single headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although our main interests are in China, we decided the pollution and business environment made it an impractical first step in Asia.

Why China will not replace Hong Kong

According to the Global Financial Centre Index in 2014 Hong Kong is ranked third behind London and New York. The index chooses 75 of the world’s major cities and measures their state of competitiveness in the financial sector.

What the coming explosion of internet real estate means for Hong Kong businesses

With over 250 million domain names registered globally, the world wide web has become a congested place since the first web page went online in the summer of 1991. In Hong Kong alone, there are almost 12 million active devices online (getting on for two per resident), while the figure globally stands at 3.5 billion.

Why 2014 looks like another record year for Hong Kong's IPO market

The strengthening global economic environment and investor confidence is expected to fuel the propulsion in the Hong Kong IPO market that began in 2013. Last year, the Hong Kong Exchange placed second behind New York as the world's biggest IPO market, raising US$21.7 billion.

Why flexible working appeals to Hong Kong job applicants

Flexible working used to be a benefit of salespeople and a few senior managers. But times have changed: new technologies and the need to increase productivity have driven the adoption of flexible working practices significantly, to the point where, at least some of the time, it has come to be regarded as essential.