SenseTime Group Limited was founded in Hong Kong in 2014 to commercialize artificial intelligence for digital recognition of images, particularly human faces. After only three years in business, the company was profitable, with annual sales revenue of about US$100 million. In 2018, it employed over 2,000 workers and was referred to as the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence start-up, with a valuation of US$7.6 billion. China had become the largest market in the world for facial recognition technologies, with its share of global sales expected to grow from 29 per cent in 2017 to 45 per cent in 2023. And the global facial recognition market was forecast to be worth US$6.5 billion by 2021. SenseTime Group Limited aimed to empower more industries throughout the world with its artificial intelligence platform. A key question in early 2019 for the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer was how to adapt its strategy to achieve that mission in an increasingly fraught global environment.
The chief executive officer (CEO) of the government-owned Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) is setting the marketing policy for the incubation program at HKSTP, Hong Kong’s leading incubator of high-technology companies. Seeing marketing as a driving force to convey the strategy of HKSTP, the CEO must analyze the key services through which HKSTP can increase an incubatee’s chances of success; analyze the advantages and disadvantages that HKSTP presents for a start-up’s location; analyze how HKSTP positions itself in the competitive market for incubation services; discern how successful it is; and determine what marketing ideas HKSTP should use to convey its competitive advantages. The task is complicated by the global nature of the incubatee servicing market, the position of Hong Kong within the Greater Bay Area of the People’s Republic of China, and the CEO’s belief that a company has to be on its own, not relying on government programs. Not only did the CEO have to give HKSTP’s incubatees the resources to help them survive and prosper, but he also had to attract the best tech start-ups to join the program.
OpenSky.tv was founded in 2016 with the objective of getting people back to watching video content on television. The founder wanted all video content to be accessible through an Internet connection on the viewer’s television. His company’s platform located and brought together programs and videos that were of interest to each viewer, so viewers could have their own personalized video channel. One full year after its launch, OpenSky.tv wanted to focus on the Cantonese market, and then concentrate on Mandarin and English audiences. The founder was wondering what his platform’s business model should be. How could he achieve his initial objective of creating a business-to-consumer (B2C) recommendation platform?
The chief executive officer of Bamboos Health Care Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. (Bamboos) started her entrepreneurship journey in 2005 with a telephone and a fax machine. She created a platform to match the demand from patients or their relatives with the supply of services from health care professionals. After 12 years in operation, following one consistent business model, Bamboos was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Despite several challenges in its early years, the Bamboos business model proved to be sustainable in Hong Kong and became resistant to change. In early 2018, the founder was considering entering the health care market in mainland China and changing the company’s business model for the first time. Could the current business model in Hong Kong be modified to enter mainland China and other countries? What changes would be required with respect to strategy and management?
As the end of 2016 approached, the managing director of AmorePacific Hong Kong (APHK) was setting the media mix and budget for APHK’s four makeup and skin care brands: ETUDE HOUSE, LANEIGE, Sulwhasoo, and AMOREPACIFIC. Tourists shopping in Hong Kong from mainland China comprised over half of the company’s sales. However, in the face of a declining number of tourists and the shrinking of luxury goods spending, the managing director had to consider the marketing tools in the customer decision journey; competitive positioning; and the distribution of the marketing budget between traditional and digital channels in the upcoming bi-monthly campaigns. She needed to strike an appropriate balance between recruiting new customers and retaining existing customers within APHK’s overall strategy for Greater China.
In 2014, the general manager of the established and successful Hong Kong-based company Hung Fook Tong, which produced and sold herbal teas, wondered how his company could profitably expand to mainland China. After Hung Fook Tong’s recent initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, its shareholders’ equity had tripled. The initial public offering committed Hung Fook Tong to expanding its business in mainland China; however, that market posed many challenges, in part because it represented a far larger market. The general manager knew it was critical to determine a suitable and successful expansion strategy.
Following a leadership crisis, the chairman of Tse Sui Luen Jewellery (TSL) had revitalized the company and now wondered which initiatives TSL should tackle next. An event showcasing TSL’s newest designs had been the latest push in her campaign to renew the family business, which was renowned for its entrepreneurial and innovative spirit. With the upcoming year promising to be a busy one, the chairman and her management team must plan and implement new strategies to capture opportunities while maintaining TSL’s core values and capitalizing on its revitalized brand.