Practitioner: What you don't know about the Internet in Hong Kong

from iOS engineer

City bustling, you know that the Internet in Hong Kong is already a sunset industry? How hard is it for entrepreneurs to abandon outsourcing and innovate?

This topic starts with a question about the "Hong Kong iOS Development environment".

I am not a technical background and cannot share "The iOS development environment in Hong Kong" from the iOS Engineer's perspective. However, we hope to share the experience of the mobile internet industry in Hong Kong over the past two years, so that we can have a better understanding and concern about the environment of the Internet industry in Hong Kong.

Before coming to Hong Kong, I believe that we are similar to the vision of the Internet industry in Hong Kong. 1000M fast but inexpensive internet access, "a sound financial investment system", "Google withdrew from China to Hong Kong", "Tencent Alibaba, etc. are listed in Hong Kong", "Universal 3G (now used 4G LTE)", " Without licensing and censorship of various licences and "free and open internationalization", these familiar and enviable descriptions of Hong Kong and its internet, without exception, make us think how developed the Internet industry is in Hong Kong, where the internet is "smooth".

Of course, what attracts me is the interactive design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which many Internet products and designers aspire to. It all sounds so internet. Hong Kong seems more like a place to dream than a short-lived internet venture and experience in Shanghai.

After graduating from the master's program one year, all the students from the mainland returned to the north and went to join the Internet. I chose to stay in Hong Kong and joined the Talkbox team, which was just beginning and developing rapidly, as China's regional manager.

Smart phones and 3G app outsourcing lack new ideas

In addition to China Mobile Hong Kong, Hong Kong's major mobile operators completed the early 3G network infrastructure and commercialization. Coupled with the general high purchasing power of Hong Kong people and the low price of electronic products brought about by tax exemption, Hong Kong has a very high rate of smartphone penetration. A few months ago, Hong Kong stepped into the 4G LTE era ahead of schedule. At the same time, apps of course has become one of the hottest topics in Hong Kong in recent years, from retail, media, finance to entertainment, education, government and so on, businesses and institutions in all walks of life want to have one or a series of apps to improve their competitiveness. Not only traditional industry companies, even the local strong it background of internet companies such as Openrice, JOBSDB, etc., also choose to outsource mobile products.

Therefore, Hong Kong has achieved a number of apps outsourcing companies, such as green Tomato, cherrypicks, Mtel, Innopage, Apptask and so on, the team from more than 10 people to hundreds of people, a small team of ten more numerous. Business from native App, mobile web design, development outsourcing, mobile advertising promotion, PR and so on. Pipeline-type outsourcing production, it is difficult to ignite innovative spark, the annual Hong Kong made hundreds of apps, mostly stereotyped, lack of new ideas.

Innovative ways for outsourced and start-up companies

In recent years, outsourcing companies began to dabble in independent technology and product development, outsourcing companies engaged in research and development has two purposes, the first is to find direction for transformation, the second is the development of new technologies and public products to become a good advertising signboards, attract more outsourcing customers.

Taking the familiar talkbox as an example, it is the product of the outsourcing company's research and development team, so it's not really a start-up company. Talkbox is the independent research and development team of Green Tomato Company Farm, following the introduction of HK movie in 2009, another widely acclaimed independent research and development products. Talkbox was initially developed by a team of 4 people, with nearly 20 people involved in Talkbox's work at the highest peak. For an internet company that hasn't found a business model in Hong Kong, it's already a big deal. The innovation of Talkbox's voice information design is so stunning that it quickly becomes standard for a variety of mobile phone applications, followed by major internet giants around the country, even as Facebook recently added similar functionality to its messenger.

Talkbox's example reflects some of the problems of Internet practitioners in Hong Kong-The Hong Kong Internet is not short of talented people who are unwilling to copy, but is not aware of or even fearful of the mainland market and lacks experience in financing and operating the Internet. Remember Kai-fu Lee teacher had suggested that the Talkbox parent company should give up outsourcing business, the company into the full talkbox to deal with competition. It's just a teacher. I can't imagine the importance of outsourcing to the company: by concept and investment, it's really not enough to feed the hundred-person company that has been in the mobile internet for 10 years, not to mention the risks it poses.

Of course, Hong Kong also has some good mobile internet startups, such as Stepcase, Primitus, 6wave, EditGrid, and so on, have a good product, there are micro-but capable team. Compared to teams backed by outsourced companies, their living environment is more difficult. Hong Kong's local market is too small, the internet industry has experienced 2000 years of the Internet bubble Baptism, in the capital market active Hong Kong these companies are not. Occasional wind from the mainland or overseas attention, but the actual financing success rate is very low.

In recent times, there have been internet-facing incubators such as Cocoon and ACCELERATORHK in Hong Kong, but there are no successful cases, so it is premature to draw a conclusion.

10 years of Hexi Internet has become unpopular

In addition, I mention the relevant market, and the domestic internet thriving different, a Hong Kong university graduates, engaged in apps or other IT development. The starting salary is about 10-12k HKD, which is equivalent to one months ' rent for a 30-square-room apartment in a normal lot, or an experienced dishwasher in a busy tea restaurant. I believe this is also a number of domestic internet companies to fresh students, but the cost of living in Hong Kong is much higher, and a few years to promote a small space, belong to the relatively unpopular low pay industry. By contrast, students who are now reading it can get a lot higher starting salaries if they enter an investment bank to do it backend support rather than write apps in an outsourced company.

Before 10, before the dotcom bubble of 2000, Hong Kong's Internet engineers were the hottest, with a few years of experience that could open up to nearly 100,000 of the sky-high salary. After the bubble, big consortia are no longer confident of the Internet, whether it is privatization or technology, and capital is no longer revolving around internet entrepreneurs. For more than 10 years, entrepreneurs have been unable to find capital development, but also become a knot in the development of Internet products in Hong Kong.

In fact, over the past 10 years, the internet has not been broken, and innovation continues. 56K of cats have even been replaced with gigabit optical fiber, the mainland's internet companies have become the focus of the world. Hong Kong, however, has not yet come out of that shadow.

Overall, the Internet in Hong Kong belongs to the sunset industry, capital is not favored, the government does not support, enterprises do not invest, talent to run outside, parents feel that children read it has no future. In recent years because of the high penetration rate of smartphones in Hong Kong, apps development has created some opportunities, some people see the dawn, 2000 down the generation of some hope to make a comeback, trying to recreate a world, but the environment is not as old as before.

What if every household has 1000M of cheap broadband access?