A majority of my time at work is spent thinking about online solutions for clients so I have some limited insights on the market in this part of the world. 

Hong Kong companies are generally more conservative than the rest of the world when it comes to using the Internet as a promotional channel.  They have somewhere in the back of their minds that it is important, but perhaps due to a lack of understanding most clients expect things to be done cheap, quick, and with volume.  This is of course do-able but the outcome is often less than desirable.

There are exceptions and I see that happening with some of the companies with less of a silo mentality.  They are willing to invest, to do things right, and take the time to ensure their internet strategies are executed correctly.  Granted you can get a local "design house" (*read: guy in his room who did one design course with Fevaworks - sorry for my lack of respect for Fevaworks grads) to crunch out mini-sites in less than a week. But are you willing to do the same with your magazine print ads?  Why is your online budget often 1/10 of your offline's while the reality is almost 80% of your customers will visit your web site at one point or another?

I applaud those business leaders with the vision and desire to utilize this channel to its full potentials as it is indeed fast gaining influence with the mass market and is re-shaping the entire media landscape.

I’ve been in the internet business for about eight years now, ten if you count my first “paying” job. For the most part I had been a freelancer but I’ve also worked for an early ISP, dot.com, ad agency, start-up, in-house, and now I am with an interactive agency. It’s interesting how a high school hobby of logging into a friend’s bulletin board system though a Zoltrix 14.4bps internal modem can turn into a happy career.

I thought about moving to a different industry after completing my post graduate studies. The thought of working in an internet related industry actually didn’t occur to me at all, especially after the bubble burst. With all the academic knowledge gained I really thought I was in a good position to move into something else, but looking back all of that really just lead me back to my true interest. Then all of a sudden I realize, finding interest in your work, being excited about it, being passionate about the industry, wanting to do “good” work and being given the chance to do so is indeed something special and shouldn’t be taken for granted.