Tag: Hong Kong

Hong Kong – Online event service provider Vootprint has launched its new technology suite to support the global B2B event industry in accelerating digitalisation. The technology suite comprised of SaaS Virtual Event Builder, ‘Expo GENie’ data analytics console, and GlobalExpo-Net (GEN) B2B event portal.

The new solutions each cater to different needs and address various pain points in the digital transformation of B2B events. It adopts a build-host-analyse (BHA) model, blending the competencies of SaaS Virtual Event Builder (build), GlobalExpo-Net (host), and ‘Expo GENie’ (analyse) into a customisable solution. 

In addition, the suite truly caters for the individual needs of virtual event organisers, solving stakeholders’ pain points such as inexperience in building online events, lack of technical, in-house support, and incompetencies in data integration and analytics. The BHA ecosystem also facilitates event organisers to design data-driven, sustainable event strategies and solutions for materialising digital transformation.

Dr. Jacky Ting, Vootprint’s chief digital officer, said, “We integrate Big Data, Al and SaaS into Vootprint’s technology suite for creating holistic virtual event experience, providing cutting-edge marketing technology support, and offering a seamless access to the metaverse.”

Powered by a proprietary SaaS solution, the technology suite now allows organisers to customise their events from a dozen of exhibition features and modules. The business matching feature, which is powered by AI, requires no additional technical knowledge to set up. With just 10 minutes, organisers can effortlessly build a virtual event that supports 3D scenes and enables metaverse connection. Compatible with the majority of live streaming and online conferencing solutions, the suite also supports game and reward functions for enhancing user interaction and engagement. 

Meanwhile, through ‘Expo GENie’, event organisers will be able to access big data of their B2B events and receive automated, real-time data analytics to make better decisions and optimise the event experience. Based on individual users’ profiles, event interests and preferences, event participants can receive regular B2B industry updates and personalised suggestions from the one-stop GlobalExpo-Net event information portal.

Vootprint said it is now setting its sights on developing new features for embracing the immense market opportunities of Web3 and metaverse.

Hong Kong – Asian retailer DFI Retail Group has announced the launch of a new e-commerce platform called ‘yuu to me’, which is an expansion of their existing rewards club ‘yuu rewards’.

The new platform features Hong Kong’s favourite brands and enables 4 million yuu members to easily shop online, have their order delivered and earn yuu points all in one app, highlighting DFI’s commitment to offer service, convenience and value under one platform.

Members can now order fresh produce and groceries from Wellcome and Market Place, health and beauty products from Mannings, and a selection of convenience store favourites from 7-Eleven. Over 30,000 items are available at launch, while yuu to me will also rapidly expand the number of categories and items available. 

In addition, the platform is directly connected with the e-commerce platforms of IKEA, KFC, Pizza Hut, Maxim’s Cakes and Arome Bakery, making popular homeware and ready-to-eat foods available through the all-inclusive app. 

Johnny Wong, CEO of DFI Digital, said, “The launch of yuu to me marks another important milestone in DFI Retail Group’s digital transformation journey, as we continue to enhance our O2O experience in different areas. In order to best meet our customers’ needs, we will therefore continue to expand the ‘yuuinverse’ with our trusted partners, and provide the freshest possible items with unprecedented convenience, enabling members to shop whenever and however they want.”

It has also worked closely with Wellcome, Market Place and 7-Eleven to transform over 150 physical stores into O2O shops, fully leveraging yuu partners’ local network. Dispatching from these strategic O2O shops allows yuu to me to bring the freshest possible items to people’s doors, including fresh produce, dairy, snacks, beverages, frozen foods and more. 

In select areas, customers will also enjoy a rapid one-hour delivery option on 7-Eleven, Wellcome and Market Place orders for 15 items or less, which is not only perfect for Hong Kong’s fast-paced lifestyle – it also generates the least carbon emissions as yuu to me dispatches from the closest O2O shops to ensure the shortest travelling distances possible. 

Meanwhile, Danni Peirce, CEO of yuu Rewards, commented, “We are excited to launch the next evolution of the ‘yuuniverse’ and today’s upgrade shows the endless possibilities our platform can deliver for our partners and members.”

Hong Kong – As 7-Eleven’s coffee brand 7CAFÉ reaches its major milestone of 600 stores in Hong Kong last April, the coffee brand has launched its new lucky draw game, ‘Make Your Own Good Coffee’.

The new lucky draw game will last for six consecutive days from 11 to 16 May 2022, with an unprecedented 600 free cups of coffee up for grabs every hour. In the game, customers will be able to step into the shoes of a 7CAFÉ barista and experience the fun of making their own cup of freshly brewed 100% Arabica coffee according to the golden ratio. 

At the start, the game will be selecting a popular 7CAFÉ coffee drink – a café latte, cappuccino, or flat white – for the player to make. Coffee and fresh Australian milk will start flowing from the 7CAFÉ coffee machine, and players then need to use their skill to tap the coffee and milk buttons on the left and right of the screen at just the right time to stop the flow to make the perfect cup. After successfully preparing the cup, customers can then enter a lucky draw for a chance to win a 7CAFÉ free drink e-coupon, which can be redeemed in the nearest 7CAFÉ store.

Moreover, 7CAFÉ has also introduced its two new limited-edition Ginger flavour drinks, Ginger Latte and Ginger Flavoured Milk, which were inspired by the familiar flavours of Hong Kong-style dessert Ginger Milk Curd. The brand is also giving its coffee cups a makeover with an exclusive 600 Stores limited-time design, featuring Gullu Gullu coffee bean characters.

7CAFÉ said that customers can use an e-coupon to try the drinks at a special price of HK$10 until 17 May 2022.

Hong Kong — Hong Kong has been at the forefront of uncertain sovereign issues, and like countries under such a critical situation, some of its citizens have resorted to investing into alternative assets as a hedge against inflation or subsiding of centralized finance. According to a key finding from a report entitled ‘The Future of Financial Services Report 2022’ by YouGov, most citizens are aware of the existence of cryptocurrency, or 3 out of 5 Hongkongers, but only 20% actually own cryptocurrency.

On the other hand, other key findings from the report reveal that the underlying reason for owning cryptocurrency is most likely as a form of investment. Additionally, Bitcoin, the undisputed forerunner of cryptocurrency, is the most widely owned asset. It is most most popular with Gen X at 71% ownership. Additionally, those ages 55 years old and above are less than likely to be aware of cryptocurrency, with half of them stating they’ve never heard of it.

The report notes that citizens ages 35-44 in Hong Kong are most likely to own cryptocurrency, at 32%, followed by ages 18-34 at ownership rate of 28%. Those in ages 45-54 years old say only 20% of them own crypto, while only 6% of citizens ages 55 years old and above own the asset.

For the top three benefits of cryptocurrency, 70% said it is for investment; 27% reported as convenient way to transfer money; and 20% claimed they used it as a cash to purchase products.

Finally, the top three cryptocurrencies owned by Hongkongers are Bitcoin at 59%, Ethereum at 39%, and Dogecoin at 22%. Hongkongers aged 45-54 are more likely to own Bitcoin, while those aged 35-44 are more likely to own Ethereum. Surprisingly, Hongkongers aged 35-44 are more likely to own the popular meme coin, Dogecoin. 

Hong Kong – Local rail operator MTR has announced the launch of its programmatic trading offering, across its network composed of 418 digital panels in 51 MTR stations in Hong Kong.

This new automated programmatic planning and trading offering will accelerate the growth of Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising, connecting advertisers and MTR advertising in a premium marketplace, combining audience targeting and impression data to create an intelligent, automatic and advanced DOOH trading solution to meet Hong Kong marketers’ needs.

MTR advertising is utilising this new technological media trading solution to meet the new expectations of its clients and to increase the competitiveness of MTR DOOH in the market. The new pDOOH offering gives advertisers considerable flexibility to optimise playout for maximum efficiency and to accommodate a flexible range of campaign budgets, ad duration and shares of time. 

Advertisers can choose among different trading models through a private marketplace (PMP) and can trade by either guaranteed price & impression (GPI), guaranteed price (GP) or non-guaranteed (NG) floor price via their demand-side platform (DSP), based on CPM (cost per thousand impressions).

Teresa Fung, chief media and business development manager for Hong Kong Transport Services at MTR Corporation, said, “We are excited to be the first metro in Asia to offer Programmatic Digital Out-of-Home as it is further enhancing our digital transformation journey. We believe that programmatic DOOH is the latest market-driven solution to cater to marketer’s needs to target specific audience(s) efficiently.” 

She added, “Together with smart technology, MTR advertising provides a flexible and effective platform for advertisers to showcase their digital creativity and facilitates dynamic and engaging advertising campaigns. This not only brings greater commercial value to advertisers, but also optimises the passengers’ journeys with more new experiences and meaningful engagements.”

MTR advertising strategically partners with VIOOH, a leading supply-side platform (SSP), who trades with over 35 DSP partners globally, including Hivestack, The Trade Desk and Yahoo, among others. This latest pDOOH offering will optimise MTR advertising campaign performance and can enable seamless online planning to offline outdoor advertising (O2O) through greater flexibility and agility.

Meanwhile, Shirley Chan, managing director at JCDecaux Transport, commented, “With the rapid development and growing demand for DOOH, programmatic trading has become an irresistible trend. We are excited that MTR advertising is achieving another important milestone by connecting to the programmatic digital ecosystem. MTR advertising programmatic trading can deliver brands greater efficiency, transparency, brand-safety, and measurable advertising, while also linking brands to the right target audience at the right time and right moment, in the right location, and with the right message to optimise deliveries of clients’ campaigns across the MTR network successfully. Our passion and aim are to enhance the position of MTR advertising as the pioneer in OOH digital transformation and we are confident that advertisers and agencies will seize this irresistible new opportunity.” 

Lastly, Jean-Christophe Conti, chief executive officer at VIOOH, added, “We’re thrilled to participate in this programmatic offering across the MTR network in Hong Kong. It’s an exciting time for the digital out of home industry as programmatic adoption takes off globally, especially in Hong Kong where 94% of media agencies and leading brand executives stated they plan to integrate programmatic DOOH within the next 18 months. This reiterates to us that the future of pDOOH in this region is looking strong and it’s a big opportunity for the DOOH industry.”

Singapore – Consumer bank DBS has expanded its partnership with global small business platform Xero to simplify the loan application process and increase access to working capital for SMEs in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The expanded partnership will see both companies availing Xero customers of the option to share their transactional records from Xero’s platform with DBS, and by doing so, customers will be able to present a more holistic picture of their cash flow which in turn enables the bank to offer SMEs hyper-personalised credit terms and working capital limits tailored to their needs.

DBS and Xero began their partnership in 2017 with a bank feed integration to give SMEs greater visibility and control over their finances with automatic bank updates. Xero is also a key partner of the bank’s DBS Start Digital Package, which is designed to help SMEs kickstart their digital transformation journey.

Joyce Tee, DBS’ group head of SME banking, noted that their regular engagement with SMEs has consistently shown that cash flow needs continue to be top of mind for their clients, even as business owners seek new growth opportunities.

“We will continue to integrate our touchpoints seamlessly into the customer journey, so as to offer our SMEs more intelligent and intuitive lending solutions. DBS has been sharpening our digital lending capabilities by leveraging ecosystem partnerships and advanced data analytics to roll out solutions that are hyper-personalised to each business’ needs. DBS is pleased to take our long-standing partnership with Xero to the next level as we double down on our commitment to helping SMEs accelerate their growth,” said Tee.

Meanwhile, Joseph Lyons, Xero’s managing director for Australia and Asia, shared that digital tools and solutions have been a significant driver in empowering SMEs to become more resilient and competitive, but working capital is the lifeblood of small businesses everywhere.

“With DBS – our first banking partner in Singapore to offer API integrated bank feeds – we are excited to extend new offerings to our shared customers through SME financing. We look forward to continuing our work to further support SMEs with their financing needs, particularly in ensuring small businesses have the support they need to thrive,” said Lyons.

Hong Kong – 7-Eleven Hong Kong has entered the world of fashion and launched a collection of ‘#OOTD Mix & Match Fashion Bags’ as part of a first-of-its-kind crossover between Japanese denim label FDMTL, known for its ‘boro’ patchwork designs, and classic cartoon PEANUTS. This set of eight bags comes in an assortment of designs, shapes and colours to match any outfit. The accessories can be used for outdoor activities, school, travelling, staycations and other daily activities. 

In 2020, the brand had already partnered with the PEANUTS brand where they picked four stores in Hong Kong and Macau to be specially decorated with PEANUTS characters.

Gaku Tsuyoshi, founder of FDMTL, shared he personally designed all eight ‘#OOTD Mix & Match Fashion Bags’ in the collection made from high-quality materials in a variety of styles for different functions for his fans in Hong Kong.

He said, “Dress up any outfit with one of the eight ‘#OOTD Mix & Match Fashion Bags’ and create your own look for any occasion. So step up your style and stand out from the crowd.”

Tsuyoshi knows very well the love Hongkongers have for Japanese culture. And so, he’s incorporated well-known Japanese motifs such as Mount Fuji, tea ceremonies, lantern festivals, food and other iconic Japanese objects alongside the popular PEANUTS characters Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Woodstock. FDMTL’s signature indigo ‘boro’ patchwork design takes centre stage throughout the entire collection with each fashion-forward bag showcasing a different side of Japanese style. 

Customers can choose the ‘Fashion Forward’ or ‘Simply Stylish’ box set. The ‘Fashion Forward’ and ‘Simply Stylish’ box sets where each include a selection of 4 “#OOTD Mix & Match Fashion Bags”. 

The ‘#OOTD Mix & Match Fashion Bag’ collection will be available at 7-Eleven from the 4th of May at 7 am. Customers can collect the series with stamps while yuu members can exclusively redeem the bags using their yuu Points. A special edition box set will also be exclusively reserved for yuu members. The special edition box set, on the other hand, comes in two styles – each style has a limited quantity of just 200 boxes. 

The attractive display boxes of each style feature FDMTL’s signature patchwork patterns and contains a selection of four different ‘#OOTD Mix & Match Fashion Bags’ so there’s no need to collect stamps or worry about redeeming the same bag twice. 

The offer is applicable to 7-Eleven stores in Hong Kong and Macau excluding Inspiration Lake Recreation Centre and Team Disney, Hong Kong Disney Resort stores and Hong Kong Disney Resort Food Kiosk and. The offer will run from the 4th of May at 7 am to 28 June 2022 where customers will receive one stamp upon a $20 purchase and one more stamp for every additional $10 purchase at a 7-Eleven store. 

In addition, from the 4th of May at 7 am to 1 July 2022 in a total of 8 weeks and 3 days, customers can redeem 2 #OOTD Mix & Match Fashion Bags randomly with 12 stamps plus $80 or 1 #OOTD Mix & Match Fashion Bag randomly with 8 stamps plus $46. While yuu members can redeem 1 ‘#OOTD Mix & Match Fashion Bag’ randomly with 8,800 yuu Points plus $8. 

Hong Kong – Local-based omni-channel chat commerce solution provider Omnichat has raised US$1.8m in its pre-A round funding, which will be used to expand its business to Southeast Asia.

The funding will finance Omnichat to further expand the business to SEA markets. The first stop will be Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The company will scale its partnership network through collaborating with more SEA smart commerce platforms on solutions integration.

Alan Chan, founder and CEO at Omnichat, said, “We will also invest more capital to bolster technology and product development on our all-in-one messaging platform, especially the remarketing and ‘chat and buy’ features, realising our mission of converting visitors to customers through chat.”

Omnichat facilitates companies to centralise customers’ chats from different instant messaging channels including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WeChat, LINE and website live chat, etc. into a single platform for efficiency enhancement. It also comprises an OMO (online-merge-offline) sales sector which pairs with revenue tracking across online and offline channels, contributing the revenue recognition and multi-shop management of brands.

Chan added, “Marketing automation through chatbots and integration of different touchpoints are becoming increasingly important to deliver a seamless shopping experience to consumers.”

Singapore – SevenRooms, a guest experience and retention platform for the hospitality industry, has now expanded to Singapore and Hong Kong. The local team will be led by Paul Hadida, SevenRooms’ general manager for APAC, who has over a decade of hospitality industry experience and has led the platform’s rapid expansion in Australia over the last 18 months.

SevenRooms’ CRM-driven platform includes a reservation, waitlist and table management, online ordering, contactless order and pay, review aggregation, and marketing automation. It empowers operators to create meaningful and personal guest relationships both on- and off-premise that maximise profits, incentivise loyalty, and cultivate exceptional experiences at every interaction, from acquiring to engaging and retaining more customers.

The expansion will see SevenRooms significantly ramping its on-the-ground presence in Hong Kong and Singapore with the hiring of sales and customer success roles. The company is currently recruiting heavily across the region, with 11% of the company’s total global roles for 2022 expected for APAC. This will account for a 120% increase in the number of SevenRooms employees across Singapore and Hong Kong. Moreover, SevenRooms will continue to build out integrations across the region over the coming months.

Hadida noted that this is a significant milestone in the platform’s mission to revolutionise the way the global hospitality industry provides exceptional guest experiences.

“We’ve grown organically in the region over the last few years, with 1-Group, Jigger & Pony, and Wine Connection amongst our existing local customers. The timing of our launch is very significant. Restrictions are easing at different rates, and while challenges remain, there is excitement about what the future holds. Our mission is to help operators – big and small, new and established – rebuild by creating the data-driven foundations that incentivise loyalty, boost revenue and build meaningful guest relationships.”

Meanwhile, Joel Montaniel, SevenRooms’ CEO, commented that they are delighted to officially launch SevenRooms in Singapore and Hong Kong, empowering operators as they enter a new era for post-pandemic hospitality. 

He further shared that these cities are two of the hospitality capitals of the world, offering a diverse array of restaurants known for their culinary excellence and incredible guest experiences. 

“After two incredibly challenging years, we are helping the local industry return to its former glory. Through the opening of our local office, in addition to the planned expansion of our on-the-ground team, we are supporting the local hospitality sector, helping operators discover new ways to adapt and drive growth in an ever-evolving, competitive market,” said Montaniel.

Hong Kong – Banking institution Standard Chartered in Hong Kong has partnered with The Sandbox, a decentralised gaming virtual world, to create innovative experiences for its clients and community.

Standard Chartered Hong Kong deems to be the first bank to acquire virtual land at The Sandbox metaverse’s Mega City district, a culture hub based on or inspired by the country’s talents. Led by SC Ventures, an innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm under Standard Chartered Group, Standard Chartered Hong Kong will be actively engaging its clients, partners, staff, and the tech community, to explore co-creation opportunities in this new and exciting space, with the goal of experimenting and building new experiences for clients, as well as bringing the local sports and art communities into the metaverse.

Mary Huen, Standard Chartered’s chief executive for Hong Kong, noted that their involvement in the metaverse allows them to reimagine their relationship with existing and potential clients on this new platform and their approach to enhancing client journeys. 

“Having acquired virtual land in Mega City, a natural choice for the Bank given its distinctive Hong Kong theme perfectly fits with our promise of strengthening our continued presence in Hong Kong, whether physical or virtual,” said Huen.

Meanwhile, Alex Manson, Standard Chartered’s head of SC Ventures, said that for the past few years, they have been building business models in crypto and digital assets, and see the rise of the metaverse as a critical milestone in the Web 3.0 evolution. 

“We are excited for this opportunity to explore and innovate in partnership with The Sandbox, but also with our clients and partners who will play a crucial role in how this space develops,” added Manson.

The bank said that its SC Ventures has been investing in disruptive financial technology and exploring alternative business models, and the innovation arm will continue to drive Standard Chartered Hong Kong’s entrance into the metaverse and exploration of future Web 3.0 opportunities.