Local content delivered fast is the secret of success for Byron Perry's Coconuts websites

Admit it: you're addicted to the internet. Given some downtime at work you turn to Facebook, only to find it mostly offers photos of cats and friends' babies. You turn to Instagram, where people are mostly showing off their private parts. You even turn to Twitter, but it's filled with the meaningless ramblings of celebrities.

And then there's Coconuts, a relatively new network of sites spread across seven Asian cities, including Hong Kong. Inspired by US-based blogs such as the Gothamist network and New York's Gawker, Coconuts has won over viewers with its constant and immediate mix of breaking local news, quirky stories, neighbourhood reporting and pop culture-focused content.

In Hong Kong, Coconuts' online-only focus has stood out from the city's print-dominated market, breaking through with its coverage of the citywide democracy protests and hitting a record 700,000 unique October viewers in the process.

Founded by American entrepreneur and former journalist Byron Perry in 2011, Coconuts first launched in Bangkok, stemming partly from Perry's frustrating experiences with traditional print media and partly from the Thai capital's lack of neighbourhood-focused news.

"I'm really interested in local news. I love what's happening around me," says Perry, who was living in Thailand at the time. "And since Bangkok didn't have anything like that, and because I thought there was potential for it around Asia, I decided to start Coconuts on a shoestring budget.

"I began by writing about everything, producing all sorts of content about what was happening in the city."