Category: Hong Kong business
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In Hong Kong your supermarket “choice” is largely between shops owned by Li Ka-shing (ParknShop, International, Fusion, Taste, and the Great Food Hall) and Jardines (Wellcome, Market Place by Jason, Threesixty and Olivers). It’s no surprise that this lack of competition leads to high prices and poor service, so alternative options are always welcome. HKTVmall…
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Now TV is getting a good kicking in the SCMP from readers who are not at all happy that Australia TV is becoming a subscription channel (after previously being free). PCCW weasels (for it is them) issued a statement saying that this was done after consultation with Australia TV, but it appears to be the…
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Today’s SCMP reports that computer retailers don’t like competition: Computer shops protest at cut-price festivals Computer retailers switched off the lights at their shops yesterday to voice their anger against cut-price computer festivals they say are ruining their business. Up to 300 shops at seven malls, including Golden Computer Centre, Golden Computer Arcade, Wan Chai…
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Continuing my occasional series on Hong Kong’s least loved companies, now it’s the turn of PCCW, or more specifically Netvigator. Or, to be precise, the complete nonsense that it is their interactive phone menu system. I wanted to find out more about their 30 mb/s fibre broadband. Their website give a phone number and says…
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A few weeks ago, HSBC announced that it was changing the conversion rate for Asia Miles, so now you need 15 reward points to get 1 Asia Mile (rather than 12:1, so it’s 25% worse). Compared to other cards that is very mean indeed – some cards give double or triple points, whilst others have…
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I’m still not quite sure what to make about the curious controversy about changes to the food labelling laws in Hong Kong. Anyone who has been into a Hong Kong supermarket in recent weeks will have noticed the campaign against the new law, on the basis that some food items would be banned from Hong…
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I have no idea what to make of the Hong Kong stock market. In the last few weeks it seems to have become routine for the HSI to go up or down by hundreds of points for no reason at all, so in response to a general fall in stock markets all over the world,…
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More nonsense in the SCMP today (subscription required): Losses from pay TV piracy down 15pc with use of secure network Frederick Yeung and Celine Sun Nov 01, 2007 Pay TV piracy in Hong Kong is estimated to result in total losses of HK$213 million this year, down 15 per cent from last year, a poll has…
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Spike has noticed the same thing I just noticed, namely that HSBC have decided to “improve” their PowerVantage account from the start of next year. The catch being, of course, that these improvements are accompanied by a substantial increase in the monthly fee if you don’t meet their minimum balance requirement – oh, and that…
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I have a theory that supermarkets in Hong Kong are about 10-15 years behind the UK. About 10 years ago, Tesco in the UK introduced their Clubcard scheme, and it has been a huge success. It’s basically a marketing thing – Tesco collects information about what you buy, and in return offers you coupons to…
Ordinary Gweilo 