Hong Kong Startups and Investors

There is an article on technode that talks about why Hong Kong startups are in need of investors.  I believe there are things that ought to be put into the proper perspective.

I don't understand why, but the definition of a startup is generally referred to a technology-related small company by certain people.  To me, a startup is just any small company starting out.  It can be in any industry.  In Hong Kong, the government has a term SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) which says that a non-manufacturing company employing fewer than 50 people is by definition an SME.

Many people see all the big companies (still small compared to those really big multinational companies) today in Hong Kong but they forget that all of these companies had a very humble start.  When we hear their stories, what immediately comes to mind is that these companies were started with creativity and passion, and the initial investment was insignificant.  Here are a number of examples:

The Maxim's Group (美心集團) - It was started by two brothers who were treated badly at a Western restaurant during the British colonial rule in Hong Kong.  They decided to start their own Western-style restaurant for the Hong Kong Chinese.  Today, the Maxim's group of restaurants and its related businesses make over HK$5 billion annually and has operations all over Asia.

Wanchai Ferry Dumplings (灣仔碼頭水餃) - After immigrated to Hong Kong from China, Ms Chong lost her job due to injury.  Using only HK$500, she bought a wooden cart and some ingredients for making dumplings.  She started selling these dumplings to customers as a hawker.  Today, Wanchai Ferry is a well-known international brand with investments from Pillsbury in the USA.

Itamae Sushi (板長壽司)/Itacho Sushi (板前壽司) - Ricky Cheng went to Japan to study as a teenager.  When he returned to Hong Kong, he worked as a tourist guide before deciding to put his knowledge acquired in Japan to start a Japanese restaurant.  Today, his Japanese restaurant chain can be found all over Asia including Japan.

In my opinion, the fundamental entrepreneurship rule holds true whether the company is technology-related or not.  If you are passionate about what you are trying to do, you will figure out ways to survive.

Sina Versus Twitter, Fight!

Twitter is based in the US and has about 200 million global users.  Sina Weibo is based in China and has about 50 million users (as of Oct 2010).  Both of these platforms are known as microblogs which allow users to publish instant text messages on the internet within a 140-character limit.

Over the past few weeks our web application was enhanced to integrate with these two social media platforms and we notice some similarities and differences that may be of interest to others.  However this blog post isn't meant to be an exhaustive comparison.

Similarities

1. Has a 140-character text message limit (although in the Chinese language, one can express a lot with 140 characters)
2. Adopt the followers, following, mentions etc for the friends' social graph structure.
3. Has API for many languages (php, python etc) for developers to integrate applications into these services
4. Has URL shorterning services.
5. Supports OAuth 1.0a (a secure authorization standard).

Differences

1. Sina Weibo allows uploading pictures (in JPG, PNG etc formats) in a text message.  Twitter requires the use of a 3rd party service such as Twitpic.
2. Sina Weibo supports identity verification.  Users which are tagged with the letter V are verified users.  Well-known celebrities seem to have their screen names tagged with the letter V.  For regular users to be verified, they need to submit identification to prove who they say they are.  When a new user signs up at Sina Weibo, a list of verified users is recommended to be added to his/her follower list.  At Twitter, we had a few spammy users automatically following us after we first signed up.  
3. Developers who are building applications to integrate with Sina Weibo are required to get verification in order to have their application logo/image shown during the authorization process.  This may mean submitting their business licenses or certificates to Sina.  Twitter allows application logos to be shown without any verification process and there's no verification for individual users.
4. Sina Weibo supports commenting on text messages.  Twitter does not.
5. Sina Weibo supports saving anyone's text messages.  Twitter requires the use of a 3rd party service such as BackupMyTweets which only seems to save a user's own tweets.
6. We work with the Python SDK for both services.  Twitter's python SDK is Tweepy developed by a 3rd party.  Sina Weibo Python SDK is supported officially by Sina, and is basically a slightly modified copy of an old version of Tweepy.
7. Twitter is blocked in China while Sina Weibo is accessible globally.
8. Sina is listed in NASDAQ in the US stock market.  Twitter is a privately held company.

So which services should your web application integrate with?  In our experience, once you get Sina Weibo integrated, the integration with Twitter is very similar (in other words, buy one get one free).  Sina Weibo is your friend if you want to reach your potential customers in China.

Amazing Food Bloggers in Hong Kong

Traditionally, Hong Kong has termed people who talk about food with special authority as Eating Gods (食神).  They claim to have good knowledge on all kinds of food, and are often invited to appear on television programs to show off their knowledge.  They sometimes write books on food as well.  They act as spokespersons for restaurants or named brands once they gain enough popularity, but I do not agree that using celebrity endorsement is an effective promotion strategy.

Ever since I discovered the food blogger network foodbuzz last year, I was surprised to find that in this part of the world there is a lot of very high quality food blogging going on.  To me these bloggers are far more capable than the Eating Gods because they are usually the webmasters of their blogs, photographers, photoshop experts, chefs and writers combined into one!  In the past few months, I wandered across the internet and found these Hong Kong-based food bloggers who love food and enjoy sharing their passion with the rest of us.  The following is a brief introduction of each one of them.

Mochachocolata Rita is a food blogger who is also an expert in food photography.  Her food photos especially those taken in low-light restaurants are really good.  She uses a Canon 7D DSLR camera to take food photos.  She's also a featured publisher in foodbuzz.  Her blog is in English.  Her twitter is @mochachocolata.

Gregoire Michaud works at the Four Seasons Hotel as a pastry chef.  His blog is in English and is full of pastry photos (and lots of closeup shots too).  His twitter is @gregoiremichaud.

Hong Kong Food Blog by Anna is a down-to-earth food blog that tells the world about the traditional Chinese food in Hong Kong.  Her blog is in English.

mandykwok1031 has tons of photos of ordinary dishes that people make at home.  Sometimes recipes are also provided.  "Mandy" sometimes appears at www.discuss.com.hk.  The blog is in Chinese (Cantonese style).

tkocell sometimes hangs out at the www.dchome.net and www.discuss.com.hk food forums.  There are tons of food photos taken at home and at restaurants.  The blog is in Chinese.

fatjoykitchen categorizes its blog with Chinese cooking techniques which is very useful to find recipes based on techniques.  There are tons of food photos too.  The blog is in Chinese.

Jason Bon Vivant has lots of food photos taken in the restaurants he visits.  The photos are really nice.

wokwithnana produces many food-related videos.  Most of the videos are in English.  Their twitter is @wokwithnana.

Cai Lan (蔡瀾) is a well-known food critic (but nobody calls him an Eating God for some reason) and author.  He appears in many food-related television programs and has written many books on food and restaurants.  Lately he takes as many food pictures as he possibly can with his iPhone: raw beef, Japanese rice etc and put them in his microblog.  His blog is in Chinese.

The Chinese Soup Lady is a project between sisters Lisa and Tracy.  It has lots of soup recipes and pictures. The blog is in English.

If you come across any other amazing food bloggers in Hong Kong, please let me know!

Location-based Marketing Tactics for Restaurants

Hong Kong is one of the top 3 cities in the world with the highest rent.  Many restaurants are established in sometimes the most obscure locations to avoid the high rent to survive.  Operating restaurants in different locations requires different marketing tactics to attract the greatest number of customers.  This post focuses on the different promotion tactics for each type of location.

Shopping Malls

It is very common to find many restaurants located on the top floor of many shopping malls around the city.  Having customers go all the way up to the top floor and passing through all the shops increases the likelihood of shopping.  Some new shopping malls have plenty of floors (for example, the Megabox shopping mall has 19 floors of restaurants and shops) and restaurants are established on dedicated floors.  

If a restaurant has decent products and services, it is not difficult to find customers coming into the restaurants by themselves. Usually the shopping malls organize promotion events (perhaps seasonal events such as the Chinese New Year's eve or Christmas) and can draw huge crowds during the holidays.

The marketing tactics for having a restaurant in a shopping mall are:

• joint promotions with the shopping malls.  One example of such promotions is to offer meal discounts for those who spend over a certain amount at the malls.

Streets

A large number of restaurants are established in regular streets. Some restaurants just don't do anything in terms of promotion because on a busy street, someone is bound to walk in.  For this reason alone, the rent for a restaurant in a busy street is often extremely high.  Some restaurants therefore move into hidden streets in which not many people have a reason to go there to eat.  These restaurants therefore must promote a lot to give people a reason to visit.

The marketing tactics for having a restaurant in a street are:

• for those restaurants in busy streets, every once in a while having a huge promotion sign near the restaurant entrance can draw huge crowds.
• for those restaurants in hidden streets:
• tell potentials customers about the uniqueness of the products and services using targeted advertisements such as in food related publications, food websites or celebrity endorsements etc.
• those without a budget can make use of the internet.  Promote in internet food forums, food websites or use social media platforms such as facebook or twitter etc.  Word of mouth or word of mouse works best.
• promote in travel publications.  Tourists don't mind spending time to find good restaurants in foreign countries.

Buildings

Many new restaurants now move into commercial office or residential buildings because the rent is substantially cheaper.  However, the price to pay for cheap rents is that it is much harder to get people to take the elevators to visit these restaurants.  Without any promotion, nobody will know that there are restaurant establishments inside any of these buildings.

A lot of cafes are established inside commercial buildings in a busy shopping district.  Young customers are generally more receptive to patronizing these places.  They don't mind taking the elevators.

Some restaurants such as private kitchens (restaurants which serve only 12-24 customers each night) often do not want too many customers.  Some may only open for business on the weekends.  They rely solely on word of mouth promotions.

The marketing tactics for having a restaurant in a building are:

• promote in youth related magazines.
• use word of mouth heavily.  It may take a while to secure a group of loyal customers.  Having good products and services is essential.
• use social media platforms to spread the word.

Factory Buildings

According to the laws of Hong Kong, restaurants inside factory buildings cannot have any sign that says "this is a restaurant".  Restaurants located in these buildings look just like any manufacturers or factories.  Most of the factories in Hong Kong have moved north into China, so in the last 20 years or so more and more of these factory buildings have become offices.  These restaurants don't even serve customers on weekends and align their working hours to the 9 to 6, Mondays through Fridays schedule.

The marketing tactics for having a restaurant in a factory building are:

• promote by fax, email etc to offices inside or nearby factory buildings.

Agglomeration

In some of the tourist attraction areas, many restaurants are established one next to another.  This is called an agglomeration and is a powerful marketing tool.  One example of an agglomeration for restaurants is Lan Kwai Fong where many restaurants and bars are established in the same area in the Central district in Hong Kong.  If customers cannot find seats in a restaurant, they can just walk to the next until they can find seats.  Usually restaurants in an agglomeration promote together during special events such the New Year's eve celebration.

The marketing tactics for having a restaurant in an agglomeration are:

• joint promotion with other restaurants during special events such as Halloween.

Conclusion

Restaurants in each type of location have different challenges.  Location is only a small piece to the big picture.  Although it has become more and more difficult to operate a restaurant due to rising costs, those who are able to survive are the ones who can come up with creative survival ideas.

Potstickers with Congee

There are many kinds of potstickers (also known as dumplings).  The most common kind is to use pork as the main ingredient:

• minced pork
• cabbages
• circle wrappers

Chop the cabbages into very small pieces.  Mixed the minced pork with the chopped cabbages.  Add salt or other condiments to give more flavor.  Put the right amount of this mixture in a wrapper and fold the top for a few times (see the following picture).  Put the potstickers in a hot pan and add water.  When the water dries up, repeat this process 2 more times.  The potstickers should be thoroughly cooked by then.

For a healthier meal, serve the dumplings with congee.

Chinese Medicated Food: Pan Fried Chicken with Orange Day Lily and Lily

Both Orange Day Lily and Lily can be eaten when cooked.  The ingredients for this dish are:

• dried Orange Day Lily (金針花)
• Lily (百合), preferably fresh
• sliced chicken

Soak the dried Orange Day Lily in hot water for a few minutes.  Keep changing the water until it becomes clear.  Put the Orange Day Lily in a hot pan and fry.  Add the chicken slices and fry them until they are thoroughly cooked.  Add the Lily and once the Lily turns transparent, turn off the heat (this should happen fairly quickly).

What is this dish good for?  Orange Day Lily can refill the blood level in a human body and can make people feel calm. Lily also has the ability to make people feel calm.  This dish is good for people who need to think a lot in their daily routines.

Introduction to Chinese Medicated Food: Potato Soup

There is an old Chinese saying:

Medicine and food come from the same origin.

That means in the Chinese medicine philosophy, medicine and food are actually the same thing.  There is a subject area in Chinese medicine that studies the use of Chinese medicine in food for medical purposes.

Medicated Chinese dishes are actually quite easy to cook.  Here's an example of potato soup.  The ingredients are:

• Dang Shen (黨參, English name: Radix Codonopsis)
• Ginger
• Potatoes

Peel the potatoes.  Add water and all the ingredients in a pot.  Once the water starts boiling, turn the heat all the way down.  Keeping the soup heated for about 30 minutes.

What is this soup good for?  Dang Shen can refill the air and blood inside a human body.  It is sometimes referred to as the ginseng substitute because it is cheaper.  Potatoes can provide detoxification to the body and prevent constipation.

Lit Your Food Subjects Nicely With Little Budget

When you are doing food photography at home, you have two choices for lighting your food subjects.  Either you use natural light or artificial light.  Using natural light means you need to set your food subjects near the window so that the sunlight can actually shine on the subjects.  That isn't always an option if your window is far away from the food subjects.  For me, my dining table is far away from the only window in the living room so I cannot use natural light on my food subjects.

The only other choice left for me is to use artificial light.  There are many options but I opted for an option with relatively little money.  I got a photography softbox set for about US$37.  It comes with a halogen light bulb (5500K), a stand and a softbox.

The halogen light bulb is big and it is rated to provide 5500K color temperature:

There is a cover on the softbox and I can remove the cover if desired:

Here is a picture with the light bulb on:

Here is a picture with the cover on:

This thing is called a softbox because the kit looks like a box is designed to soften the light.

This picture was shot without the softbox lighting:

This picture was shot with the softbox lighting:

The difference is quite big.  A softbox kit is relatively inexpensive and can provide the necessary artificial lighting at home.  Another good thing about this kit is that it is portable and can be disassembled and stored easily.  This kit is highly recommended.

Number 1 Myth of Entrepreneurship Debunked: Be a Loner to Succeed

Last year I decided that I could no longer work for anyone.  I keep realizing that I don't like to answer to anyone especially my superiors, and I don't like the work I am doing at any company that I work for.  Therefore after my contract ended with my last company, I left without any hesitation.

I have always wanted to start my own company.  Back in 2003 I quit my job at Oracle in the USA and came to Hong Kong to start my first company.  It was a SaaS (Software As A Service) company also known as an application service provider (ASP) at that time.  I spent one year building the technology by myself.  Towards the end of the first 12 months, I had an epiphany which was the fact that I was lacking the fundamental skills in marketing that prevented me from finding paying and non-paying customers.  So I went back to school and spent two years to get my Master degree in Marketing.  Here I am again, thinking that marketing can provide part of the solution to my business problems.  I am ready to take the leap of faith and try the entrepreneur thing again.

A Master degree in Marketing only changes the way I think.  Our professors often like to say: these marketing concepts are going to be difficult for you to understand and you may never understand them.  While I may not be smart enough to understand everything there is to understand, but now I understand that at the startup stage, my company has to offer value to a very small group of people.  Marketing needs to target these evangelists: find them, partner with them, pay them to use my services etc.  Do whatever necessary to turn them into paying or non-paying customers.

For the last few months, when I tried to turn my friends into these very small groups of customers, I keep getting the same reaction.  Whenever I tell them about my advertising business and ask them for help, they will say yes but there is no action.  Sometimes I even offer money and hope that in return I get some help from them.  None whatsoever.  Perhaps the money is not enough to motivate people.  On one occasion when I offered money to a friend in exchange for some nice-looking food photos, she kept saying that the money wasn't enough.  Eventually she just told me to get the pictures from her facebook photo albums and pay her.  Sometimes I think that I just ain't a good enough friend to them that they are willing to give up their time and energy just to help me out.  Sometimes I think it's a cultural thing for the Chinese: don't do this unless it gives you something in return that is worthy.

We entrepreneurs keep hearing the myth that an entrepreneur who is a loner is destined to fail.  I think it is wrong.  If anyone can survive in business as a loner, he or she will excel as an entrepreneur.  Think about it.  Most companies are founded by a few friends, but in the end it is always left with one single founder.  Great musical groups or bands break up because the founding members always have different agendas or goals at some point in time.  When we entrepreneurs go for outside help, nobody is going to help unless you are ready to offer lots of money with no guaranteed return, just like gambling.  If you ask your friends for help, they will make you wait forever, because they just say they are happy to help but not really act to help.  When we small companies want to work with larger companies, they never respond to our proposals or inquiries.  Mr. Li Ka-Shing, one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, remembers what his father taught him: it is always better to ask yourself for help than to ask somebody else for help (求人不如求己).

This greatest myth of entrepreneurship must be debunked right here right now: be a loner and you are better off doing the entrepreneur thing all by yourself.  You may ask: those Venture Capitalists look at the team behind a startup, not at an individual.  Then I say to you: don't even bother with Venture Capitalists.  Some of the greatest startups survived and grew exponentially after all of the Venture Capitalists told them NO.  You may ask: I don't know everything and I must get help from someone.  Sorry to break the news to you: you need to do everything by yourself.  I am not a web designer or any designer for that matter, but I have to do it for my website.  I don't want to do the programming but I get more scared if I pay someone else to do it because there are so many cheating freelancers and outsourcing firms out there.  I am not a photographer but I need great looking food photos for my advertising business.  A professional photographer offered me the pictures for an amount I couldn't afford.  I have no choice but to learn how to take professional looking food photos because this is the most cost-effective.  Over the years I keep doing the "impossible" and find that it can progressively become easier to overcome the next "impossible" task.  I have learned how to systematically acquire the knowledge necessary to complete each task.

I am not trying to discourage anyone from being an entrepreneur.  However, if you are ready to become one or are already one, try not to have any partners or ask your friends to help out (as a favor).  Learn to do everything by yourself.  When your business takes off, pay your non-friends (or sometimes friends) as regular employees/contractors to do the work that you don't have time for.  Remember that you are the only person who is willing to run your company for free.  Nobody else (including your friends) is willing to work for free or for very little money.  Before you can afford to pay someone, do it by yourself.  It is going to be difficult, but the "training" will make you prepare for the even more difficult problems (which very likely you have to face by yourself) in the future.