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This story features in this week's podcast, click here to hear all about it.

Entrepreneur Billy Yeung knows about trends. The former Hong Kong Telecom employee helped establish the firm's Netvigator internet service in 1996, but as executive director of start-up Y5Zone he now focuses on the migration from fixed to wireless internet technology.
Y5Zone operates 136 Wi-fi hot spots throughout Hong Kong and expects the number to reach 300 by the end of the year, based on the combination of greater consumer awareness and a wider variety of Wi-fi devices.
'I think this year there's going to be a lot more gadgets, they are going to be bigger, better and cheaper, and I think that is going to help Wi-fi,' he said. 
In Europe and the United States, Wi-fi is a mainstay of coffee shops, public areas and airports. Leading aggregator iPass now has 20,092 hot spots in 51 countries.
But despite this global proliferation, Mr Yeung said Hong Kong users had not fully embraced the technology. Y5Zone is trying to build a body of users among three groups it expects will be the earliest adopters - overseas business travellers, local executives and students.
The strategy is visible in the firm's choice of hot spots, ranging from premium locations such as  the International Finance Centre and restaurants in SoHo and Lan Kwai Fong, to KFC outlets and bowling centres, driving ranges and karaoke chains.
'The basic model is that we are trying to reach everyone in Hong Kong. But I don't want to become a cold spot - a hot spot with no users is a cold spot and there are many in Hong Kong,' Mr Yeung said. 
Mr Yeung said compelling applications were also critical to gaining users. The emergence of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) was one application he hoped would appeal to executives.
'People have been talking about Wi-fi, VoIP and smartphones for a while but it was only late last year that the models started coming on to the market,' he said.
Mr Yeung said the technology would not have an adverse impact on the firm's partnerships with mobile operators - Sunday and CSL - despite VoIP's potential impact on mobile-phone revenue.
'At the end of the day, technology will advance anyway. What I'm doing now is offering the customer another choice.
'Will everyone move to one technology? Probably not - people will still choose and the mobile operators have already realised the best strategy is a bundle of communications [options].' 
Mr Yeung is trying to apply Wi-fi technology in the social space - just like Y5Zone's sister company Loverlover.com, an online and mobile social networking service, is doing. This is where he envisages a preference for PDAs and smartphones over road warrior laptops.
The firm will launch what it claims is Asia's first location-based Wi-fi chat room on Friday, giving users the opportunity to chat online while deciding whether to meet face to face.
'I believe that there has to be an integration between physical and virtual [socialising],' Mr Yeung said. 
The idea for the 'Find Date Chat Room' came from users of Loverlover.com, and Y5Zone will offer the service for free initially before looking at potential revenue models such as partnering with the sister company.
'We are always trying to find something that will increase the number of people using wireless communication, or Wi-fi communication.
'The good thing about this is it brings people out of their home. It won't stop people chatting but at least it will bring people from the home into a public area, breathing fresh air,' he said.


This week?s podcast lets you hear all about Electronic Arts? China push, Y5Zone?s social hot spots, the latest ESC sequences and listen to a chat with HK Microsoft executive Robbie Ray Wright.



Y5Zone expanding social hot spots