Hong Kong Startup News Roundup - 10 August 2021

Mark in the metaverse

As June came to an end, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told his employees about an ambitious new initiative. The future of the company would go far beyond its current project of building a set of connected social apps and some hardware to support them. Instead, he said, Facebook would strive to build a maximalist, interconnected set of experiences straight out of sci-fi — a world known as the metaverse. The company’s divisions focused on products for communities, creators, commerce, and virtual reality would increasingly work to realize this vision, he said in a remote address to employees. “What I think is most interesting is how these themes will come together into a bigger idea,” Zuckerberg said. “Our overarching goal across all of these initiatives is to help bring the metaverse to life.”

Huawei to invest US$100 million in Asia Pacific startup ecosystem over 3 years

Huawei announced its plan to invest US$100 million in startup support at the inaugural HUAWEI CLOUD Spark Founders Summit, which took place simultaneously in Singapore and Hong Kong. Huawei said the investment would go towards its Spark Program in the Asia Pacific region, which aims to build a sustainable startup ecosystem for the region over the next three years. Huawei has been helping Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand build their startup hubs. 

COVID-19 curbs paralyze hardware startups in China’s Silicon Valley

China's COVID-19 border closures have paralyzed the movement between Shenzhen, a free-wheeling tech hub built on the country's early efforts to open itself to the world and the overseas business relations, throwing a spanner in the rapid cycles of product development that power the hardware center. Now, like most people working from home, an engineering team is prototyping a bioreactor that will one day produce "cultivated meat," discussing component sizes in a video call with scientists sitting in kitchens and bedrooms in the U.K. from an office in Shenzhen's sprawling electronics district.

Cyberport, Ericsson, SmarTone and Unissoft Join Hands to Develop New 5G Applications, Form Hong Kong's First 5G Edge Computing Deployment Scenario Used at Cyberport and Unleash the Power of 5G Technology

Hong Kong Cyberport, Unissoft - Cyberport Incubation Programme Alumni, SmarTone, and Ericsson announced a partnership to build Hong Kong's first Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) deployment scenario at the Cyberport campus and capture the benefit of 5G communication technology. Developed by Unissoft and supported by a 5G MEC system architecture designed by SmarTone, this deployment scenario combines SmarTone's 5G network with the Ericsson Enterprise Edge Link, becoming the first project in Hong Kong to adopt it in a commercial capacity and the first batch of projects in Asia.

China Startups Shut Out of U.S. Face Tougher Hong Kong IPO Rules

Chinese startups hungry for foreign capital are increasingly turning to Hong Kong as hurdles to list in the U.S. multiply. But not every firm will make the cut, and those that do might have to settle for lower valuations. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. makes far more stringent demands on companies planning a listing than its New York peers. Firms likely to struggle include unprofitable startups with little revenue such as those developing autonomous driving cars, or companies in industries including ride-hailing, which operate in a legal gray zone.