Small companies in Hong Kong, China rank top of the class in using technology to achieve growth, CPA survey finds

Hong Kong and mainland China’s small business operators are more willing to invest and make use of technologies in their operations than Singapore and Australia, a strategy that helps them to achieve better growth, according to a survey of CPA Australia. 

Mainland Chinese SMEs ranked top with 84 per cent of respondents saying they earned more than 10 per cent of their revenue from digital payment. Vietnam ranked second at 62 per cent while Hong Kong ranked third at 55 per cent, according to the CPA Australia’s ninth annual Asia-Pacific Small Business Survey.

This is compared with 49 per cent in Indonesia, 39 per cent per in Malaysia, 36 per cent in Singapore, and 33 per cent in Australia and New Zealand. 

The findings are the result of a survey conducted in October and November last year on about 3,000 small business operators in Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

China and Hong Kong also ranked high in terms of using social media for business purposes with 95 per cent of mainland SMEs active users, ranking second highest among the eight markets. Vietnam ranked No 1 with 98 per cent. Hong Kong ranked fourth with 91 per cent using social media to do business, trailing Indonesia at 92 per cent. 

“Out of 310 respondents from Hong Kong, 54 per cent earned more than 10 per cent of their revenue online in the past 12 months and 55 per cent generated more than 10 per cent of their sales from new payment technologies such as PayPal, Apple Pay, WeChatPay and Alipay,” said Janssen Chan, chairperson of CPA Australia’s Hong Kong SME Committee on Tuesday.

Chan said these technologies help the Hong Kong SMEs to cut down space of their offices so as to save on rents, while the usage of online sales and social media payment platforms will help to expand their customers base.