Recap: Day 3 of 2017 Rise conference on technology and entrepreneurship in Hong Kong
The third and final day of the 2017 Rise Conference in Hong Kong featured a number of discussion sessions from startups to debating whether the internet bubble is bursting. Here’s a recap of some of the sessions on the third day:
In the session titled “Innovate or Die,” the Lan Kwai Fong Group’s chairman and serial entrepreneur Allan Zeman said Hong Kong is slow in adopting new technology, especially in the new field of financial technology, or fintech, because there are too many established risk-averse players in the city. His fellow panel member Janice Lee, managing director of PCCW, said the company’s mobile streaming video service Viu is looking to compete with Netflix in Asia as it provides a more country-specific pricing. She said PCCW has been a disrupter in the era of cable TV and now it sees the urgency in adapting to the new landscape dominated by companies that provide over-the-top (OTT) content, or content transmitted via the Internet.
Does a tech worker need a college degree? Cindy Wang, chief marketing office of Uxin Group said a degree helps applicants knock on the door of tech companies in an increasingly competitive industry. Diane Yu, co-founder of FreeWheel, said a degree isn’t compulsory, since employees must keep improving anyway.
Africa is the next hot spot for technology entrepreneurs, said Crunchbase’s chief executive officer Jager McConnell. In the next 10 years, the number of workers coming out of Africa will surpass the rest of the world, he said, Chinese investment in Africa has surged to US$26 billion as of 2013, from US$7 billion in 2008, while over US$100 billion in African roads, telecom, water, power and light industry will be financed by China over the last 15 years.
GGV Capital’s managing director Foo Jixun said that the autonomous vehicles are now getting investors to think what consumers will want to do when they have their hands free. Melissa Guzy, founding partner of Arbor Ventures, said autonomous vehicles will end up cutting across almost every other sector. Harry Hui, founder of ClearVue Partners, said that starting a venture in China is perhaps the most competitive although the initial cost in starting a venture has dropped significantly.