Tag: Hong Kong

Hong Kong – EventX, the SaaS company providing hybrid event management solutions for businesses, has secured a Series B plus funding of US$8m, which brings the company’s Series B total to US$18m. This funding was led by venture capital investment company GL Ventures, with participation from other investors.

The new funding of EventX will be used for financing potential acquisitions, strengthening its international operations, and expanding its presence in Asia, particularly in Taiwan and SEA, with further investments in product development by scaling their products to transform virtual events with innovative offerings. 

In addition, EventX will continue to expand its footprint in Asia with engineering, business development, and new leadership hire. It will also tap into VR solutions that support a digitalised world and stay ahead of the curve in this ever-changing technological environment. 

Sum Wong, the CEO of EventX, shared that enterprises are already evolving themselves into the digital world and looking for a platform to create an innovative and targeted event for their audience and generate leads. 

“Platform development will always top our first and foremost priority as we strive to stay competitive and make our customers ready for any business opportunities,” said Wong.

Hong Kong – As part of the Chinese New Year festivities, HSBC has launched its festivity-centric campaign for its mobile payment service PayMe, focusing on breaking traditional conventions and gamifying the custom by bringing family and friends together in a more fun and inclusive way.

PayMe partnered with an array of gen X, millennial and gen Z talents. Local idol Keung To, along with multi-talented artist Ivana Wong, newly formed girl group members Marf & Day, and YouTuber Ray were cast to reflect the e-wallet’s widespread popularity amongst all demographics in Hong Kong.

https://youtu.be/_i4O40bin60

In addition, they also released a series of films that make reference to the classic Chinese New Year TV commercial format. Created in partnership with Ogilvy Hong Kong, the films show their star-studded outfit playing the roles of relatives, friends and colleagues and then are transformed into a fun-filled virtual world with gaming-inspired graphics amplifying the message that anyone and everyone in Hong Kong can use, play and have fun with the new group laisee function.

Jaslin Goh, head of marketing, CX and design at PayMe, said, “We’ve positioned PayMe as ‘Hong Kong’s Wallet’ and won over 2.5M hearts and those hearts are pumping fast for love of PayMe’s new elaisee feature over CNY and we’re super excited to hit a record high of over 5.3 million elaisee sent. Within a short one month period, it went viral very fast and we’ve got over 200 earned media and social shares of their love of the gamification experience. PayMe elaisee even became a new urban dictionary term in social media.”

Hong Kong – LINE Today Hong Kong, the news and content curation hub within social messaging app LINE, has partnered with digital advertising solutions company Innity to launch its new self-serve platform to streamline its ad operations and expand its ad offerings to advertisers. 

LINE Today curates and publishes over 1,000 news and content articles daily and has over two million monthly active users. The new custom platform enables LINE Today’s advertisers to set up orders, manage campaigns, and build their creatives. It also enables advertisers to run Innity’s high-impact mobile ad formats like Mobile Spin and Mobile Cards, amongst others. In addition, advertisers can set their own campaign budget and schedule, and then monitor results and adjust as needed in a real-time dashboard. 

Queenie Hung, LINE’s sales director for Hong Kong, commented, “We’re excited to enable advertisers to easily and quickly create and upload their own campaigns that they can push live to 2 million active users on LINE Today Hong Kong in an effective way.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Lim, Innity Hong Kong’s managing partner, shared that they are excited to be working with LINE Today Hong Kong who is an innovative publisher dedicated to discovering the best advertising technologies. 

“We’re excited to have become their partner and support and streamline their ad campaigns with our programmatic-driven self-serve solution, and we expect that it will create significant monetization opportunities for them,” said Lim.

Hong Kong – Ashbury, the strategic communications firm dedicated to serving financial service companies, has announced two new appointments for its Hong Kong office namely Ellin Choy as associate director of Ashbury’s advisory team and Jason Wincuinas as associate director, senior writer and editor.

Choy was previously with Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab in Asia-Pacific as a programme lead. Through that role, she managed relationships with over 60 partners and provided counsel and advice to participating fintechs. In her new role at Ashbury, she will be working closely with Noel Cheung, director of advisory at Ashbury.

Meanwhile, Wincuinas joins from think-tank group Economist Impact, previously known as the Economist Intelligence Unit, where he had been a senior editor since 2018. In his previous role, he has worked extensively with financial clients on research-driven projects focused on technology and ESG.

Adam Harper, managing director at Ashbury, said, “Ellin and Jason are both talented individuals who bring valuable skills and experience to our clients across our advisory and content offerings. As Ashbury celebrates its second anniversary, our ability to attract colleagues of this calibre reflects our strong momentum and the way that our proposition resonates with clients.”

Ashbury has updated its clientele base in the past few months, retaining global independent investment bank Houlihan Lokey, as well as Eventus Systems, a multi-asset class trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring systems provider. Ashbury has also signed recently a contract with Episode Six, a payments technology firm.

Hong Kong – With 2022 already past its first month, banking institutions in Hong Kong, both the traditional and virtual ones, are optimistic about their venture into this year as they expect to implement higher interest rates to improve margins, according to the latest insights from consulting firm KPMG China.

According to the insights, banks highlighted the attraction and retention of talent as a key concern, where global demand across all roles, including digital transformation and ESG has been strong. Meanwhile, mainland banks, which have been a growing force in the sector for the last few years, have been focusing on stabilising their operations in Hong Kong. 

In addition, banks in Hong Kong have continued to increase their focus on digital transformation in all aspects, as technology is being used to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs, including in areas such as know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML). 

On the customer side, demand has risen for more seamless digital experiences and banks are being pushed to improve their offerings. Digital transformation, which is critical for Hong Kong to retain its position as a leading international financial centre, is expected to remain a key pillar of growth.

Meanwhile, virtual banks in Hong Kong have completed their first full year of operation. While a few have performed well, most are struggling to find a clear path to growth and looking for ways of customer acquisition at lower costs. These banks are also facing stiffer competition from traditional banks that have strengthened their own digital offerings in response to the arrival of the virtual banks.

Terence Fong, head of Chinese banks for Hong Kong at KPMG China, said, “Mainland Chinese banks in Hong Kong are looking forward to increased fee and commission income in 2022, particularly since they have a large retail customer base. While risk appetite has decreased over the last year, mainland banks will be looking to develop new income streams and increase the level of digitalisation and collaboration between their mainland and Hong Kong operations.”

Hong Kong – Global Fintech-as-a-Service company, Rapyd, has concluded the acquisition of Neat, a Hong Kong-based cross-border trade enabling platform for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and startups.

Rapyd’s global payments network supports more than 900 payment methods in over 100 countries and global payouts in over 200 countries making it uniquely suited to support entrepreneurs and SMBs looking to incorporate, get online, and access new markets quickly and inexpensively

With the integration of Neat, users will now be able to incorporate new companies in minutes, streamline receivables and payables in a single venue, start with Hong Kong and soon in other trade-friendly markets around the world, offer real-time high-value payments in Hong Kong via FPS, CHATS, and SWIFT, and accelerate payments to suppliers across Greater China, as well as empower smart business and employee spending via virtual and physical Visa cards, and provide eligible businesses with fast working capital through an in-wallet credit line.

Arik Shtilman, Rapyd’s CEO and co-founder, shared that completing the acquisition of Neat represents a significant step forward in expanding our platform’s global capabilities for small and medium businesses.

“As SMBs have evolved into increasingly complex and ambitious enterprises, the tools they require must advance as well in order to keep pace with the demands of this new wave of ‘micro-multinationals.’ We will continue to add more tools to our network in order to continue to support these growing businesses,” said Shtilman.

Hong Kong – ELEVEN, a sports media group, has secured additional content rights for some of the most popular sporting events this year, and will be catered to their user base in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. The content will be composed of 2,000 hours worth of live sports content dedicated to the region’s growing sports fanbase.

ELEVEN has an extensive package of Asian Football Confederation rights and is currently home to live coverage of every AFC Asian Women’s Cup and AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar match in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Brunei Darussalam.

In addition, ELEVEN also has the rights to Spain’s Copa del Rey, the Malaysian SPL Sepak Takraw League (STL) and a roster of international cricket, badminton and Japanese table tennis.

Cricket, table tennis and badminton are being served up as well to fans in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei Darussalam. Live coverage of this season’s Copa del Rey and STL are also available on ELEVEN across the region with the exception of Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

Lastly, a total of 19 European badminton events will be shown by ELEVEN during 2022. Live table tennis coverage from Japan will be delivered to audiences from February, and STL coverage is already underway.

Nick Wilkinson, managing director for APAC at The ELEVEN Group, said, “We are excited to be growing our operations across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong with a compelling mix of local and locally relevant content. Our ambition is to offer our audiences a dynamic new service to follow the sport they love. The partnerships that we have negotiated so far mean we are well on the way to delivering on this mission and we will be continuing to expand our portfolio in the coming months.”

ELEVEN is employing a streaming-first approach in all Southeast Asia markets and Hong Kong, with its platform ElevenSports.com at the heart of its offering. ELEVEN’s streaming service is due to be supplemented by partnerships with local linear operators to make content as accessible to fans as possible.

Hong Kong – To kickstart the new year, financial institution HSBC in Hong Kong has launched its annual ‘Go Goal Day’ campaign, aimed at empowering people in the country to pursue their dreams, and open up a world of opportunity as they go towards where they aspire to be.

Titled ‘1.23 Go Goal Day’, this year’s campaign was launched on 23 January, with the date and name of this day resembling the expression of ‘1, 2, 3, go!’, HSBC has made it a representation of courage for everyone who goes after their dreams. 

The campaign, which is developed in collaboration with creative and CRM agency Wunderman Thompson, includes a thematic video featuring the country’s superstar Keung To, as well as a series of social posts by influencers around the city who took the lead to share their goals.

The teaser is followed by offline stunts to engage the audience in real life, such as the iconic OOH wall in the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station in Hong Kong, a 1:1 Keung To digital greet with the audience, and an introduction of HSBC services. 

Moreover, the audience is encouraged to scan the QR code and learn more about the products and services that will potentially support them in achieving their goals. The bank has also leveraged on its LED wall to launch a brand new O2O customer journey. 

According to HSBC, during the entire Lunar New Year period, giant digital red packets will rain down the HSBC Main Building to bring luck and fortune to the city. For the very first time, the offline initiative is bringing the customers back to their social media platform, where they can participate in a game on Facebook to complete the journey.

“This full-funnel, holistic ‘1.23 Go Goal Day’ campaign will take everyone in Hong Kong closer to their hopes and dreams, whether it be financial, health goals, or just happiness in general,” said HSBC.

Hong Kong – ViLab Limited, a Hong Kong-based metaverse service provider, has formed an exclusive partnership with Actoplus Holding to develop virtual idols and other metaverse technology, with the goal of capturing opportunities from the transformation of digital brand marketing in Mainland China.

According to consultancy iiMedia research, the size of the virtual idol market in China has reached US$540m in 2020, a 70% jump from a year earlier and was expected to reach US$17b in 2021.

Since the founding of ViLab, the company and its partners have been developing and upgrading virtual human and background technologies such as face-shifting, lip synchronization, and voice cloning.

Through the new collaboration, ViLab and Actoplus will be working together on the creation and maintenance of virtual idols. These characters can be deployed for an array of commercial functions, such as brand endorsement, live-streaming broadcasts, and both online and offline marketing campaigns.

Ric Wu, ViLab’s chairman and founder, commented that they are delighted about this collaboration as virtual idols have been a dominant feature in their metaverse vision since the company’s founding. 

“Access to the world’s biggest consumer market where digital marketing is seen as one of the next frontiers will give us the perfect platform to test and launch many of our ideas and technology,” said Wu.

Meanwhile, Vincent Lau, Actoplus’ chairman, shared that the collaboration with ViLab will make use of Actoplus’s expertise in digital marketing and e-commerce to jointly develop business in Mainland China. 

“At the same time, Actoplus will connect ViLab with existing and potential partners in the metaverse space, to further explore the range of possibilities presented by the new digital era and reinvent business models for the future,” said Lau.

Hong Kong — Digital creative agency AnalogFolk has announced the appointment of Dixi Song, former senior strategist of Publicis Groupe, to be its new strategy director for Asia. Song will be responsible for bolstering the agency’s full-service offering for the market. 

At Publicis Groupe, Song was tasked with handling and leading the strategy for leading the company’s top-tier clients like Cathay Pacific and Under Armour. Song also holds extensive experience and expertise in the financial service business where she supported HSBC in its Asian wealth business.

Chris Ryan, managing director and partner at AnalogFolk Asia, commented, “360 customer experience planning is in increasing demand from our clients and Dixi brings that expertise to our team in Asia. She is fanatical about using data to help brands to become customer-first. She is an exciting new talent for us, not only adding another dimension to our team but also bringing a lot of energy to our culture.”

Meanwhile, Song shared her thoughts on her appointment, saying that as the world is looking forward to life beyond the pandemic, the company understands clients placing increasing emphasis on digital transformation and positive societal impact.

“AnalogFolk’s strong digital pedigree and its global ambition to be an agency of change was a key reason for my interest in working with them. I’m really excited to use my experience to build on our capability in Asia and to guide client strategy in this era of rapid change,” Song said.

This January, AnalogFolk also launched their new behavioural transformation consultancy ‘Mindworks Consulting’ to deliver augmented business outcomes to both marketing strategy and organisational design through applied behavioural economics.