Ordinary Gweilo

In business, timing is everything.  So, it is somewhat bizarre that Hong Kong finally has a service similar to Netflix just as it seems clear that DVDs are being replaced by downloads (and streaming).

The new service (StarMetro) was mentioned in Sunday Post (now, er, officially my favourite magazine in the whole word) and – in what passes for research – I have discovered that there is another service (Movieflys) operating in Hong Kong.

I’m not very impressed by the StarMetro website.  For example, they list some TV series, but they have a separate entry for each disc and you have to plough through all of them to discover what they have (not much, as it turns out).  It also seems to randomly switch from English to Chinese when you click on a link.

However, that’s not the fundamental problem – the real question is how many people will pay HK$49 a month to get DVDs sent to them by post when they can get a wider choice of films and TV shows more quickly – and without paying.  It’s tough to compete with free and convenient, and recently the government indicated that it does not plan to make BitTorrent-style downloading a criminal offence, so I can’t see it getting any better for them.

As it happens, the Guardian had another article last week about the imminent demise of DVDs(Going the way of VHS: DVD industry braces itself for march of the download).  Can’t come too soon for me, I have to say:

The DVD is only 10 years old and yet the doom merchants are predicting it could join the likes of VHS tapes – vanishing from high-street stores and household shelves. With reports that Apple is poised to launch full-length film downloads in Britain and other companies offering their own video-on-demand services, even DVD industry insiders admit the format may eventually die out.

Well, let’s hope so.  Until then, I’d like DVDs a whole lot more if they didn’t have stupid menus and special features.

I’ve been in Hong Kong long enough to remember KPS, which was a highly successful business renting out Laser Discs (and later DVDs) from dozens of shops across town.  Then they went bust, and some of the remaining shops were taken over by Blockbuster, but they’ve now closed down. All that’s left today are a few local shops (that usually rent DVDs and VCDs as a sideline rather than their main business), and a couple of smaller chains.  It’s hardly a big business.

So why would anyone want to get into this declining market?  The only logical explanation that I can think of is that they see this as an interim stage, and are planning to emulate Netflix by offering a streaming service as well as DVDs by mail.  If so, then just maybe they will have a viable business (assuming that Apple can’t be bothered to open the iTunes store here).