Lonely Hong Kong, why can not step out of the Internet business?

February 2, 2015, Ali announced an investment of HK $1 billion in Hong Kong to set up a "Hong Kong Youth Enterprise Fund" to support young people's entrepreneurship in Hong Kong. Ma Yun said in his speech: "Hong Kong's position on the globalization of finance, the rule of law and the education of all universities, I think the Chinese mainland to have such a quality of students are not many." Realistically speaking, it is only the young people of Hong Kong who dare not step forward today. "Obviously, this is good news for Hong Kong internet entrepreneurs who have been so quiet.

As early as the early 1990, Hong Kong had started to provide Internet services, one of the earliest regions in Asia. Ten years ago, the number of Internet users in Hong Kong amounted to 3.3 million (up to more than 7 million in Hong Kong so far) and the internet penetration rate was 51%, after South Korea, Sweden and the United States. Internet users in Hong Kong spend an average of 22 hours a month, the world's largest. The broadband network has covered all commercial buildings in Hong Kong and over 95% per cent of the residential areas, and has provided free internet access in community centres, libraries and even in various public places.

Even so, Hong Kong has never had a truly influential internet entrepreneur and company, and it has always been an open, free and advanced impression on Hong Kong. Why are there so few internet entrepreneurs? We from the society, Government, culture and other elements of depth analysis.

complex social and environmental factors

Sandwich layer embarrassment: Due to the impact of the Hong Kong-British era, Hong Kong society and the European and American culture is closely related, the European and American culture is very easy to enter Hong Kong, including internet culture. Li Yinghao, the founder of the Money party and Hong Kong people, talked about the use of Internet users in Hong Kong, said: "News to see Yahoo, search with Yahoo, Google, finance to see Aastock, video watching YouTube, social use Facebook, email with Gmail, comments with dinner, discussion to discuss, Uwant, Replace SMS with WhatsApp. ”

The mainstream Internet products in Hong Kong are mostly American Internet products. Development to now, due to the domestic trade, increased communication and other factors, micro-letter in Hong Kong's penetration rate is increasing, Taobao and other products also slowly have some users, but a small number. Hong Kong's Internet users, under the dual influence of the Central European culture, will become a collection of products.

But for Hong Kong internet entrepreneurs, this is a dilemma: because of the cultural background of the East, the European and American users of the use of habits and hobbies are not thorough understanding. At the same time, due to the influence of Western culture and Hong Kong's special environment, the use of domestic Internet users are not known enough. For example, because of the well-developed transport and service industries in Hong Kong, there is basically no need for electricity to understand Alibaba's rapid development at home. This has caused Hong Kong entrepreneurs to become awkward sandwich layers. Under such circumstances, Hong Kong's Internet products are difficult to produce.

The Internet demographic dividend: "Demographic dividend" is said that a certain stage of society in the age of the working population, the elderly and children, there will be a relatively rich labor resources, support the burden of light, economic development is very favorable "golden age."

The internet also has a similar period, the age of the internet is very much, the number of users in a short span of a few years, a large amount of companies enjoy the internet's "demographic dividend" to the rapid development. The overall population of Hong Kong is more than 7 million, and the ageing trend is getting worse. Such a narrow market does not have the foundation to breed great entrepreneurs and great companies.

Mainstream values: As a city with Oriental culture, parents ' will and ideas will affect their children's career planning and choice. The four pillars of Hong Kong's economy are trade and logistics, financial services, professional and business support services and tourism, plus real estate.

The mainstream values of society as a whole are respected by the leaders of these industries. Therefore, parents want their children to be doctors, lawyers, banks, in large enterprises to ensure the stability of life.

Although Hong Kong is an open market economy, many large consortia, including Li Ka-shing, have already occupied important areas and industries such as Hong Kong's basic necessities and trade, and they have contributed more than 50% of Hong Kong's GDP, and as a vested interest, the large consortia of Hong Kong have benefited enormously from real estate, trade and At the same time will continue to maintain the relevant interests, they do not have the driving force to support and invest in the field of science and technology entrepreneurship.

Especially after about 2000 years of dotcom bubbles, investors are more cautious and careful and more willing to invest their money in traditional industries with more guaranteed returns. Even in the IT industry, job seekers are more likely to choose a large enterprise technical support or department job rather than a separate start-up.

The Internet entrepreneurial environment in Hong Kong is not a matter of talent, it is not a question of capital, but an economic structure. The chaebol have monopolized Hong Kong's economy, and the elites are amnesty by big companies, and in stark contrast, entrepreneurial risk and cost are high and few people dare to try easily. This has hindered the entrepreneur to form the large-scale investment, only is the sporadic soldier disperses bravely.

Official management of sluggish bureaucracy

The Hong Kong government has always been renowned for its honesty, efficiency and openness, but it has not been very supportive of the technology industry. The Hong Kong government has set up a Hong Kong Science and Technology Park Corporation to provide relevant support to entrepreneurs in the technology industry: including research facilities, infrastructure, service planning, innovation and development, specific services for enterprises including office space, marketing, start-up funds and so on.

Government funding includes small sums of money (HK $100,000 to HK $300,000) and office resources (free office space), as well as low-interest commercial loans, incubator projects, entrepreneurial competitions, etc. In Hong Kong, there are some official or civil incubators, some influential such as Cocoon, STARTUPHK, irregular activities and exchanges, so far there is no obvious project results.

But these inputs are only bucket to the overall economy of Hong Kong. In 2012, for example, Hong Kong spends HK $15 billion on technology research and development (50% from public institutions), accounting for only 0.72% of Hong Kong's GDP, in stark contrast to the percent of GDP in Singapore and South Korea.

Hong Kong's economy is too dependent on the traditional economy and new growth is lacking. For a long time, the main focus of the Hong Kong government has been on the four pillars of our economy: trade and logistics, financial services, professional and producer services and tourism, plus real estate.

These industries occupy a total of 60% of Hong Kong's GDP, and the economic development of Hong Kong will be guaranteed as long as the four pillars of the traditional industries are protected. For the Government, the importance and priority of developing new industries has become very low. Natural and related policies and resources input will be relatively limited, especially in new industries such as innovation and technology, which has greatly hampered the creativity of Hong Kong's science and technology industry and the rise of entrepreneurial boom.

The political game made the policy worse than it had been. Following the rejection of the 2012 proposal for the establishment of a technology sector, the Hong Kong Government was prepared to set up another "Innovation and Technology Bureau (Innovation and Marvell According)" in 2014, but was again defeated in the Legislative Council's finance committee in February 2015 and the appropriation bill failed. Formally established and postponed again.

The chief executive, Mr Leung Chun-ying, announced in March that he appointed the former deputy principal of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HKCMCL, as an innovative and technology advisor.

Science and technology and innovation industry is a fierce competition, day by day, changing things, partisan bureaucracy and political game, coupled with the lack of financial allocations, the scale and overall development can only be empty talk. Mr Leung reiterated that, in order to seize the opportunity to do a good job in the field of innovation and technology in Hong Kong, we have appointed innovative and technological advisers to proactively and actively promote innovation and technology development before the establishment of the Innovation and Technology Bureau.

Innovation and technology are very important to Hong Kong society and are closely related to the life of the people. The Hong Kong Government is aware of the urgency and importance of this issue, but the extent to which it can be practised and promoted depends on Hong Kong's actions and practices.

Survival pressure is huge, survival priority entrepreneurship

There is a well-known word in Hong Kong: Stop your hand. Hong Kong has the highest living pressure index in the world.

Hong Kong has the best university education in the world, and there is no shortage of talented people. But the reality of life allows most graduates to choose stable jobs rather than unpredictable startups.

Due to its special geographical location and tax exemption policy, Hong Kong is well known for its excellent reputation in terms of daily necessities. In Hong Kong, after graduating from college, the salary is generally 10,000-15,000 HKD (total RMB 8,000 to 12,000). The salaries of IT staff in Hong Kong for 10 years or so are about HK $230,000. But if it's in a financial company, it's normal to be in the millions of. Income disparity has led IT industry to become an unpopular industry.

Sky-high housing rents have put a lot of pressure on wage earners all their lives, and have discouraged college graduates or other entrepreneurs wishing to start their own businesses. The Hong Kong property Price Centre is more than 100,000 per square metre, and the remote area is 560,000 per square.

In the centre of the city, it takes about 7-8 thousand Hong Kong dollars to rent an old room with a makeover or demolition, and a bed of HK $4000. In Hong Kong's rental website, see the most is divided into rent rooms and bed ads. Without income, there may not be even basic accommodation.

In contrast, a river in Shenzhen, the salary of college graduates in the general 4-8 million yuan, five years of work 1-1.50,000, 8-10 years experienced Internet practitioner 230,000 is not uncommon. In the city center, such as Futian or Nanshan rent a single apartment probably need to pay 24,000, if it is the customs of Phuket or Bantian, Xixiang will be lower, farmers or urban villages around 1000 can also be rented to a very good house.

Although the Hong Kong government has the benefit of supporting the "public housing" system of low-income earners, that is, the income of households is lower than a certain number, they can rent government public housing at very cheap prices, similar to domestic low-rent housing. But gruel, some young white-collar workers prefer to pay a cut or give up their jobs in order to rent public housing or to purchase the relatively low price of government hos flats. High-rise prices have distorted the whole of young people, what ideals and entrepreneurial passion?

It's not cheap to drive in Hong Kong, parking is expensive, and parking fees in Hong Kong's core areas are sky-high for ordinary white-collar workers. For example, in Central financial district to work, one months down parking fees may spend 8000 Hong Kong dollars.

There is a very interesting reference data: The Durex Global index shows that in the sample of dozens of countries, Hong Kong people are the second lowest in the global number of sex, the number of sex each year 79 times, less than seven times a month, slightly more than the end of the list of Japan; Chen Longwei, honorary clinical assistant professor of Surgery Department of the University of Medicine, People in Hong Kong live in a stressful life, so the number of sex is low. It is evident that the pressure on Hong Kong people is great.

Life is still difficult, which passion and courage to start from scratch? When a group is preoccupied with the immediate or real life, creativity and innovation will be greatly suppressed, Hong Kong's overall environment, will never be able to produce the garage of jobs, repeatedly defeated Wang, with the wife of the entrepreneurial Jack Ma, more is the survival and implementation.

A young man named Cat Commander in Hong Kong has written "No one in Hong Kong" on "a" one of the details is: "I squeeze 8 stops to work in Kowloon Tong every day, and I find it interesting that there are very few people holding hands in the streets and subways of Hong Kong, of course, to exclude tourists from the seaside promenade in Tsim Sha Tsui." The space is too small, people's speed is too fast, want to paragraphed together is not easy. ”