Average salary increment stood at 1.3% in Q1

EV SALES TO SURGE IN 2020: ANALYST

The demand for electric vehicles (EVs) in Hong Kong is slated to remain elevated in 2020 despite constraints in spending, according to a Fitch Solutions report.

Higher incomes relative to the Asian region will drive demand for EVs as the affordability constraints seen in many other markets are reduced. EV sales may expand by 34.5% in 2020 to reach 3,315 units, on the back of a strong performance in Q1 when sales skyrocketed 408% YoY.

The report also noted that this figure in EV sales growth will significantly outperform the total vehicle sales in the SAR. “We currently forecast total vehicle sales to contract by 17.4% in 2020 to reach 41,433 units, as growing political risks combined with an expected economic contraction in 2020 leads to sales contracting further,” Fitch Solutions said.

In addition, another main driver will be the concessions on first registration taxes (FRT) of up to $97,500 on the value of newly registered passenger EVs, which was introduced on 1 April 2018.

The scheme also allows for higher FRT concessions of up to $250,000 on the value of newly registered passenger EVs for owners who de-register their internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle or old passenger EV with the intention of replacing it with a new vehicle.

This has led to EVs being competitively priced relative to their ICE counterparts, which combined with higher incomes in Hong Kong will result in the EV market proving resilient in 2020. Incentives also include commercial vehicles and motorcycles in the FRT concession scheme, which may bode well for the general adoption of EVs in Hong Kong as it opens up opportunities for a broader adoption of EVs by consumers and businesses.

Average salary increment stood at 1.3% in Q1

Overall salary adjustment is 1.3% in Q1, which is significantly lower than last year’s 5.1%, according to the JobsDB salary survey report. In addition, only 50% of 4,000 employees surveyed have received a raise in salary this year, a 20% drop when compared to last year.

Moreover, 40% of respondents reported a salary freeze, whilst 75% of respondents have negative views on the employment outlook and are actively seeking alternative options.

The retail and tourism sectors have faced a challenging time with a pay drop of 8.9% and 8.1%, respectively. Over 30% of respondents across both industries also indicated that their salary has been cut.

Meanwhile, 76% of job seekers are open to switching job functions, especially employees in the hospitality and tourism (26%), customer service (20%), and general management (20%) sectors. On the other hand, employees in information technology (IT) and analytics have recorded the highest salary increment, at 6.1% and 5.8%, respectively.

In addition, the survey found that 27% of job seekers confirmed they are looking for positions in different sectors, with nearly 20% saying they wanted to change job functions as prospects in their current industry are getting worse.

The survey also noted that 75% of

Source: JobsDB

The softening of the job market has led to 64% of employees revealing that they took less than 2 months in making the decision to change job.

respondents hold a negative view on the employment outlook in Hong Kong due to possibilities of local recession due to socio-economic situations (78%), uncertainties around the external environment (67%), and foreseeable closedown of local companies (61%).

Because of these, 30% of job seekers and employees are willing to switch to a company with better job security, whilst 19% of employees and 32% of job seekers wish to switch to another job function or occupation with better job security or greater demand in the market.

The softening of the job market has led to 64% of employees revealing that they took less than 2 months in making the decision to change job function, whilst 35% took at least 3 months for consideration. Over 7 in 10 or 73% of respondents with work experience between 3 to 5 years had a higher incidence of salary increase when switching careers, followed by those with 6 to 10 years of experience (62%).

Considering the cautious economic outlook, 46% of job seekers expect their job hunt will take 3 to 6 months.

37% of employees consider starting their own business

One in three, or 37%, of employees stated that they want to leave their current jobs in order to start their own business, according to Randstad Hong Kong’s Workmonitor survey. This sentiment is highest amongst workers aged 18 to 24, with close to one in two workers considering this path.

“Red tapes, long-drawn approval processes and inaccessibility to digital solutions can limit an employee’s growth potential. Add Source: Randstad these reasons to unmet salary expectations they are not paid competitively in their roles. and inadequate learning opportunities in a “To ensure sustainable employability in a rapidly traditional corporate structure, and employees evolving and uncertain climate, candidates need might just want to take matters into their own to be more marketable by equipping themselves hands,” said Natellie Sun, managing director with relevant technical and soft skills to stand out in search and selection for Greater China at in the crowd. Slash careers can also help enhance Randstad. employability as it demonstrates the candidate’s

Even though 75% of respondents feel ability to manage time and grow business.” valued and appreciated in their jobs, 39% feel Most companies tend to hire younger talent they are not being paid enough as compared for their digital capabilities and tech-savviness to to similar jobs in other companies. More than drive innovation and fill the gaps that the existing two in five younger workers (42%) felt that workforce is unable to keep up with.

Spidfier solves a multibillion dollar problem in fisheries

Spidfier’s Harold Mollison and Dr. Syed Shakeel Ahmed

In one of the largest importers of fish products in the world, Hong Kong is no stranger to fish fraud, a problem could incur a total loss of $178.25b (US$23b) a year. Nine out of 11 fish products are often found mislabelled in six Hong Kong markets, which are usually sold higher than it actually costs. Whilst companies may take it to labs, hire fish morphologists or put expensive trackers in each fish in verifying, the processes are still lengthy and pricey—one that is not entirely accessible to the whole seafood industry.

In addressing this multi-billion dollar problem, biotech startup Spidfier has created a lab-in-abox solution that can be used any time along the supply chain process, even at the end when a customer calls for quality assurance.

“There’s just no way to tell the difference between a farmed fish and a wild one. They look exactly the same as they’re the same species. It’s only really through DNA that you can tell the difference between them,” Harold Mollison, CEO and co-founder of Spidfier, told Hong Kong Business. “Our tech doesn’t rely on any trackers, it reads the DNA. So [the lab-in-a-box] can go into any point along their supply chain using the machine that doesn’t need to have any prior information put in any fish and then they can identify it.”

In the traditional way where a fish gets taken into a laboratory, the process could take a week and may cost up to $775.02 (US$100) excluding logistical costs. Spidfier claims that their solution is cheaper at around $465.03 (US$60) and can shorten the processing time to just 30 minutes. They can identify over 9,000 kinds of fish.

In February, Spidfier nabbed $415,149 (US$53,566) from UK-based accelerator Entrepreneur First. They also have three more fundings secured from SOSV’s Hax Accelerator, University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation.

The funds will be used to boost their production capabilities and distribute those to various firms. “Our solution is the only one that is comprehensive, so we’ve used this to leverage connections with the Hong Kong government, with largest sourcing companies and even worldwide regulatory companies,” Mollison added.

This ecommerce startup can up conversion rates for merchants

Omnichat CEO Alan Chan and COO Lewis Pong

Every ecommerce business’ nightmare is low conversion rates, or the percentage of web visitors who were able to get what they came for out of the total number of visitors. Solving this pain point, startup Omnichat has created an omni-channel messaging platform that claims to achieve higher conversion rates, sales and customer service efficiency. “I started the business because I faced the same pain point before when I was running my own ecommerce business in 2012,” Alan Chan, founder and CEO of Omnichat told Hong Kong Business. “I missed a lot of orders due to lack of efficiency to communicate with people when

they visited my ecommerce website. That’s how I realised the importance of real-time messaging communication, and understanding of the behaviours of e-commerce users.”

Omnichat aims to help ecommerce merchants connect all their users’ messenger channels, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Line and WeChat, and map all their purchasing behaviours through a single platform. The platform can identify which are the most viewed and purchased products. It can also tell which messenger channels are the best way to convert users from a website visitor to a real purchaser.

In March, Omnichat secured $6.2m (US$800,000) in a seed funding led by Taiwan-based VC firm AppWorks, which was also participated by other investors including the Hong-Kong based Aria Group. They aim to spend 50% of their funding in further perfecting the product, whilst the other half will go to business development and marketing initiatives.

How FDT is modernising the trust scene

FDT CEO Vincent Chok

When it comes to the finance industry, all eyes are on the fintech scene even before the pandemic prompts players to keep up with the heightened demand. But the same cannot be said for the trust industry. Filling this gap is Hong Kong-based startup First Digital Trust (FDT), riding on the bulk of opportunities fintechs are currently enjoying.

“A lot of fintech companies are very good at technology but have little experience in running financial institutions—you have to comply with international standards, tax regulation, especially if you’re servicing cross-border clients and moving money across borders,” FDT’s COO Gunnar Jaerv told Hong Kong Business. “Trust has always been an old-fashioned concept, hence the name—we’re modernising and digitising these functions. We’re going through a new revolution with virtual banks and open

banking, and doing the same in the trust space.”

FDT is the digital asset custody arm of Hong Kong-based financial firm Legacy Trust. It is a fiduciary taking on a B2B approach in holding businesses’ assets and enables cross-border asset settlements. It has built up its platform to launch Asia’s first Rapid Settlement and Clearing Network (RSCN), which will allow the startup to manage digital assets under their custodianship safely and efficiently. Currently, RSCN is currently in use by some of their clients and a public launch is yet to come.

FDT recently nabbed a $23.25m (US$3m) seed funding from Taiwanese VC firm Nogle last March. In the next 18 months, they will conduct another funding round when their products are more mature, Jaerv said.

“Custodians are important to ensure trust in holding the underlying assets backing tokens and First Digital Trust can already play a key role to facilitate this trend, being set-up as public trust company holding a Trust and Company Service Provider license, allowing the custody of various asset classes to ensure the trust required for this industry to mature,” said Jonathan Leong, co-founder and chairman of Nogle.