The COVID-19 epidemic cast a deep shadow over the global economy, and the situation startups are faced with is tragic. Startup Genome, a consulting firm, interviewed more than 1,000 startups across 50 countries around the world from March to April, it was found that more than 70 percent of the startups interviewed were forced to lay off employees due to the epidemic.
As I mentioned in a previous article, I had been invited to serve as a mentor for several startups from Mainland China and Hong Kong. The project is called the X-Plan and has been organized by the Hong Kong X Foundation. Each participating company had to present an elevator pitch within a short period of time for prospective customers. At a recent gathering, we let the participants share their difficulties and seek advice from us. 繼續閱讀
Steve Case, co-founder of AOL, the world’s largest and most valuable internet company in the 1990s, said in his book The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future that the internet is moving from virtual to the physical world, and the rules of the game are likely to be redefined. 繼續閱讀
Can you imagine what Hong Kong will look like 10 or 20 years from now? By that time, can we still rely on the four major industries currently accounting for nearly 60 percent of GDP – trading and logistics, tourism, financial services, and professional services – and continue to enjoy prosperity and stability with a per capita GDP still among the world’s top 20, higher than Germany, Canada or the United Kingdom? 繼續閱讀
The new economy in Hong Kong is sluggish as evident from the low uptake of finance for startups. The total market capitalisation of the new economy in the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange accounted for 59% and 44% respectively while merely 3% in Hong Kong over the past 10 years, according to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The market capitalisation of industries such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and life sciences, healthcare equipment and software & services, only represented 1% of the total! 繼續閱讀
