February 2012
5 posts
1 tag
QR codes: worth a scan or just a fad?
Is it just me or do QR codes seem to have taken over Hong Kong? From websites to print ads, bus backs to the window displays at swanky department stores, these pixilated boxes have almost become impossible to miss. I know the technology isn’t exactly new but the trend only seems to have just caught on in our neck of the woods as more businesses become social media savvy.
For those unfamiliar with...
2 tags
3 tags
#SMWHK Round Two - Ding Ding!
After being left disappointed by #SMWHK yesterday, we started the second half of the week with caution - had we pre-paid for a series of events that were destined to leave us feeling short changed?
Last night we ventured to the Apple Store to watch Casey Lau, who is highly regarded in Hong Kong for his involvement in HK’s digital space and passion for social media. We can happily say the...
3 tags
#SMWHK Falls Flat
In case you haven’t checked your Twitter feed, scrolled through your Facebook timeline or logged on to FourSquare this week, stop what you’re doing and get connected: Social Media Week Hong Kong (#SMWHK) is finally here!
Following the success of last year’s inaugural Social Media Week, our team has been looking forward to this year’s line-up for a few months. As active users of a variety of social...
2 tags
The Power of Pinterest
Apparently Pinterest is the next big thing social media ‘thing’. If you are not acquainted with this site, the best way to describe it is a virtual pinboard. I have only just started using it, but it really is addictive. I see an outfit inspiration or a design I like (yes, I am using is solely for personal use) and I pin it. It’s a great mood board for my virtual blog and real...
January 2012
6 posts
3 tags
Stent surgery found to slash strokes risk
A six-year study on “Intracranial Stenting for Prevention of Ischemic Stroke” led by the CUHK Vascular and Interventional Radiology Clinical Science Centre brings hope to patients with narrowed blood vessels in Hong Kong by reducing the degree of narrowed blood vessels, annual stroke risks and providing greater protection.
It is the narrowing / closing of blood vessels that leads to strokes,...
2 tags
4 tags
Social Media and Emerging Markets
In a recent report by KPMG, surveys found that businesses in the emerging markets of China, India and Brazil are quickly adopting social media. These businesses are 20 to 30 percent more likely to use social media than counterparts in the UK, Australia, Germany or Canada.
However, social media is rapidly becoming an essential topic on boardroom agendas in organizations around the world, in both...
4 tags
Racepoint Group, Heels & Deals, and Social Media
We are very excited to be talking to the ladies at Heel & Deals about social media on 31 January 2012. Soo Jin, Emma and I will be talking to this savvy group of entrepreneurs about using social media effectively to benefit business. We’re going to be discussing social media basics, the Hong Kong and China landscape, and incorporating social media into day-to-day life and much much...
2 tags
China now has more than half a billion Internet... →
December 2011
12 posts
5 tags
Social Media, Love and Privacy
I have strong views on how much should be shared on Facebook. Photos, comments, videos - all fine and dandy. But my one pet hate is couples sharing emotions and “special moments” on Facebook. I’m not jealous or bitter, I’ve been there and done it. I’ve just grown up. I just do not see is necessary to share EVERY photo, thought or emotion over a public site. My biggest...
3 tags
Did you know...?
That Kim Jong-il was a cognac fan. The former dictator, whose death was announced today, had a penchant for Hennessey cognac that retails for $630 a bottle in Korea - $270 less than the average Korean annual income, $900.
2 tags
4 tags
Nudge Nudge, Tweet Tweet →
Karan Chadda, Marketing Specialist for Racepoint Group, Europe has landed a super-awesome role as a blogger for HuffPostTech UK. Not only are we uber jealous but we are also in awe of his awesomeness. Ten points Karan, look forward to reading your upcoming blogs!
4 tags
Racepoint Group's Social Media Predictions for...
It’s been an amazing year for social media. From the launch of Google + to augmented reality becoming commonplace, we’ve seen an incredible increase in the number of businesses using social media to connect with customers and social networks responding to meet demands.
As social media becomes a more important aspect of communications, we decided to take a look into the crystal ball...
3 tags
The Most Retweeted Tweet of 2011 →
@Wendy struck a cord with the Twitterverse and “RT for a good cause. Each retweet sends 50¢ to help kids in foster care. #TreatItFwd” helped Wendy’s raise $50,000 for orphaned children.
1 tag
A Very Hong Kong Christmas
Our colleagues in London are curling up by the fire with a Terry’s Chocolate Orange, our Boston counterparts are off to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and the team in San Francisco have the Great Dickens Christmas Fair taking place in Bay Area. In Hong Kong, it’s a positively balmy 24c, the sun is shining and the skies are blue.
It’s not what you expect in the build up to...
2 tags
Sina Weibo encourages use of real names to help... →
3 tags
2 tags
The Age Old Debate
At the most recent Hong Kong PR Network Event, the age old “Content is King” saying was once again repeated and questioned.
If you don’t know about this debate, you probably don’t work in the communications industry. Here’s a quick background summary: “Content is King” is a phrase coined by Bill Gates in 1996 after he published an article where he...
“At the moment, lawyers at Facebook and Google and Microsoft have more power over...”
– On today’s Fresh Air, legal scholar Jeffrey Rosen talks about technologies that are challenging our notions of things like personal vs. private space, freedom of speech and our own individual autonomy. (via nprfreshair)
November 2011
13 posts
2 tags
3 tags
What the Klout
Over my lunch break I decided to check my Klout score, not because I believe that Klout is a credible tool of influence measurement but because I was curious and looking for something to do.
It turns out that I am influential about:
Jack Sparrow
Hong Kong
Dolls
Yup, that’s what Klout told me.
If you don’t know what Klout is, here’s a brief introduction to what I...
2 tags
Li vs. Lee
Over the past couple of months, China has watched Li vs. Lee with cautious interest. On Aug 31., Kim Lee, and American expatriate living in China posted photos of her battered and bruised body on her Weibo page - a result of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband Li Yang, a popular Chinese educator who founded “Crazy English”.
“Family ugliness must not be aired” is a...
1 tag
“Social media is not a fad. It’s one of the most powerful tools that mankind has...”
– Carlos Dominguez
Senior Vice President
Office of the Chairman of the Board and CEO, Cisco Systems
1 tag
3 tags
Today's Thought
My father always told me “today’s new is tomorrow’s fish and chip paper”. Not only does this show his age as you’re no longer allowed to use newspaper at the local chippy but it also highlights an age-old problem that I think it becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s society.
The longest twitter trend (news related) lasted 16 days 15 hours and 47 minutes...
3 tags
2 tags
“I asked them to give my hand back but they said they needed it for investigation”
– Taiwanese man Hu Chi-Yang, who said his left hand was amputated in a savage robbery and insisted that mainland police kept it as evidence
2 tags
China and social media - a "common agreement"
It’s being reported through a number of sites that China’s leading internet giants such as Sina, Alibaba and Baidu have come to a “common agreement” with the Chinese government regarding greater control of information available across the internet and social media.
According to these reports, the agreement looks to “stop the spreading of harmful information” -...
1 tag
2 tags
Did you know...?
China is now the world’s second largest app mobile market with usage up 870% in 2011.
3 tags
Is this the end of an empire?
I admit it; I did fall for the Kim Kardashian fairytale wedding (as did a number of female colleagues!). Days before the event, we sat around discussing the Kardashian brand and how much of a success Kris Kardashian’s push to promote her family has been. 72 days later, the press, fans, celebrity junkies and my colleagues are reeling in the news that Kim, America’s self-titled sweetheart, is filing...
2 tags
1 tag
October 2011
20 posts
3 tags
The Racepoint Point of View
Technode recently published “5 Facts You Must Know Before You Start Talking About Sina Weibo and Twitter” and we thought - there’s got to be more to it that 5 simple facts. So we asked our savvy social media lover, Jeremy Li, whose article on Social Media in China was recently published in The Holmes Report, to give his expert opinion.
For more information, please read the...
1 tag
“If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on public relations.”
– Bill Gates
4 tags
Business SNS in China to grow five-fold
Tianji, China’s most popular business social networking site, announced today that the number of users in China is expected to grow five-fold by 2013, gaining 100 million members.
Today business SNS such as Tianji and rival Ushi have 20 million members. (Makes LinkedIn’s one million members look relatively feeble, doesn’t it?) These websites continue to increase in popularity...
1 tag
WatchIs social media a fad?
Or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?
1 tag
3 tags
“The Internet will open the door of democracy.”
– In an amazing and insightful article published in the New York Times, Chinese artist Pi San and political activist, Wen, talk about the darker side to China’s censorship laws and the way in which China’s subculture has adopted satire to face the army of 50,000 censors that control social...
4 tags
Occupy Asia
Hong Kong and China attempt to join the Occupy Wall Street movement as it spreads across the world protesting against the 1% of the population who they say control the world’s wealth.
In HK a group of protestors from groups calling themselves Left 21 and FM101, have decided to occupy the the headquarters of Central’s HSBC. Messages and signs echo those seen in New York, “We represent...
3 tags
Social Media In China: Tigers In A Cage →
A huge congratulations to Racepoint Asia’s Jeremy Li who comments on Social Media in China in the most recent Holmes Report.
3 tags
1 tag
3 tags
Did you know...?
Asia will account for 54% of Android shipments in 2011.
5 tags
It’s going to get personal – China, micro blogs...
Following a recent Communist Party meeting, China’s state-controlled newspaper, Beijing Daily, has announced that bloggers are now “required to show their real identity when they openly publish information or express their opinion.” This announcement is a direct result of the country’s increasingly active micro-blogging services, Sina and Tencent Weibo, which have become popular platforms to...