About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs.

Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

Analyst Weblog

« Yahoo!xtra - NZ Portal Update | Streetdirectory.com and Bezurk Gaining Traction in Singapore »

Making Friends and Money in Hong Kong

July 12, 2007

On a recent client trip to Hong Kong, I learnt about some interesting regional differences. Compared to other markets we track here at Hitwise, Hong Kong Internet users have the highest volume of visits to Net Communities & Chat (HK 16.6% compared to US 11.9% w/ending 7/7/07); and Stocks & Shares (HK 3.1% compared to US 0.7% w/ending 7/7/07). At the same time, Shopping & Classifieds is still considered a major challenge by businesses.

The below chart shows the interplay between the three industries, where you'll note that visits to Stocks and Shares have leveled and overtaken Retail:

Some of the comments I heard about retail in Hong Kong from both a business and consumer point of view related to population density and trust. As Hong Kong is highly urbanised, 'outdoor' shopping is considered a popular social activity; secondly the issue of trust in online retail security needs to be settled in the minds of Hong Kong users. There is the opportunity to move from an online wholesale environment to a channel which directly meets the needs of consumers.

As businesses look to overcome these hurdles, may I suggest that advertisers wishing to promote their brand and wares for purchase either online or offline look at the Business Information category; or alternatively Fantasy - Sports Betting websites which offer a recreational form of 'trading', another popular activity by Hong Kong users. The below are the top 10 in each category.