Hong Kong mobile operator SmarTone joins war for e-commerce and online payment to look for new profit streams

Hong Kong mobile network operator SmarTone Telecommunications could roll out its new service called “Kiss” this December as the first batch of retailers in the city have signed up for the ambitious online-to-offline marketing and payments platform.

“We’ve already started signing up stores, including [those run by] medium-sized retailers. Some bigger retailers are looking at it, too," Douglas Li, the outgoing chief executive of SmarTone told the South China Morning Post.

Li, who had championed SmarTone’s two-year development of the Kiss platform, said the company’s leadership “should run Kiss for five to seven years to fully realise it’s value because of how uniquely focused the platform is to help retailers”.

He said there could also be an opportunity to license the technology behind the Kiss platform to telecommunications network operators outside of Hong Kong.

“It’s basically an internet business so the actual cost of implementation is not huge. The only question is how quickly it could scale up,” Li said. “If it does well in a foreign country, the sky is the limit.”

Launched early this month, Kiss will enable retailers to connect with consumers through a platform that ties together digital marketing and loyalty programs with data analytics and mobile payment.