If you have come from the Chinese mainland to study or work in Hong Kong, the name “Gangpiaoquan” (港漂圈) won’t be new to you. This online community is now the largest one-stop online social platform for mainland people to seek practical and useful information about living in Hong Kong.
“Gangpiaos”, aka “Hong Kong drifters”, is a term coined in mainland internet chat rooms to refer to educated individuals from north of the border who now live and work in Hong Kong.
Gangpiaoquan was initially established by two Gangpiaos in 2013 and has become a must-visit platform that has attracted 280,000 fans to its WeChat public account and 220,000 followers to its Weibo account, the mainland’s Twitter-like microblog service. One of the founders, George Liu Dongbai, is a graduate of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University who majored in marketing from 2007 to 2011.
Since George came from northeast China to Hong Kong to study, more and more mainland students have followed the same path, supported by government and university policies.
The admission of talent policy in Hong Kong was expanded in 2008 with a one-year visa extension, the IANG visa, for graduating mainland students. The Hong Kong SAR government also implemented several talent admission policies to attract talent to Hong Kong, including the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals in 2003 and the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme in 2006.
After graduation, George worked with an exhibition company for eight months. Having witnessed more and more mainlanders moving to Hong Kong to study, and inspired by his own study and work experience in Hong Kong, he had the idea to set up an online platform for Gangpiaos. Coincidently, it was around this time that he met his present partner Zhao Lei, who shared his experience of studying and living in Hong Kong in Weibo which attracted a large readership – tens of thousands of fans. They clicked easily and spent half a year creating a new company. That’s how Gangpiaoquan started.
First, they devoted considerable effort to organizing offline events twice a week to build momentum. It did not take very long for the platform to take off. Their revenue relies mostly on advertisement.
“This start-up experience has had a huge impact on my mindset and has made me unafraid of solving problems. Starting from zero to one gives me tremendous courage to overcome obstacles,” said George.
In future, Gangpiaoquan plans to launch (on WeChat) a mini-program to reach a larger audience via multiple channels, according to George, and the focus will be more on capturing hot topics on both sides of the border to boost content and consultation services.
George is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Business Administration at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. He plans to accumulate experience in large enterprises after graduation to facilitate his start-up business.
Serial Entrepreneur Injects Vitality
The Gangpiao group is actively fitting in with Hong Kong society and injecting vitality into the local entrepreneurial circle. In the same cohort is another graduate from PolyU - Steve Gao Bo, also a Gangpiao entrepreneur, who has made his name known in the circle. He graduated with a management major in 2011.
In the final year of his Bachelor’s degree study at PolyU, Steve created an O2O internet platform that received HK$100,000 from the PolyU Micro Fund. After graduation, he moved the business to Cyberport with the support of HK$ 1 million from the Hong Kong SAR government, 80% in the form of a non-cash fund such as subsidies for rent, marketing activities, employment and legal services. He operated the platform for a year and a half and then sold the project out.
While working at a French family-run business named Maison Herbard, which focuses on alternative investment, and Tempus Group, Steve co-founded a restaurant called Chang’An Taste with two partners in August 2014 to promote the food of his hometown in Shaan’xi.
They spent three months researching ingredients and setting the menu and six months on store preparation, and finally launched their first restaurant in Hung Hom. The monthly turnover of the restaurant is around HK$400,000, and it attracts local Hong Kong customers in addition to gangpiaos.
Branches of Chang’An Taste can now be found in Sheung Wan and Sai Wan as well. The founders plan to introduce new dishes, inspired by the popularity of the recently launched steamed stuffed bun, according to Steve. He admits that the real and financial economies have been greatly affected by the coronavirus outbreak, so they are cooperating with group catering service providers to deliver food to customers and talking with Chinese companies about providing take-away food for their employees.
Steve is now only a finance investor of Chang’An Taste. He pulled out of the restaurant business after it went into stable operation and established an asset management company, Sigma Invest, in 2017 with offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Xi’an, Wuhan, Suzhou and Shanghai, to draw on his experience in finance and business management.
As a serial entrepreneur with knowledge of both the mainland and Hong Kong, Steve reckons that the start-up boom on the Chinese mainland that emerged in 2015 has entered a precipitation and deleveraging period in recent years, but given the government’s clear policy of stimulating technological innovation and development, he believes that many opportunities remain, especially in the high-tech sector.
As for the Hong Kong government’s support regarding start-ups and technology, Steve thinks enforcement is not adequate. “For example, although the government encourages start-ups to set up offices at Cyperport, the location is not convenient for business,” said Steve.
Although he is full of entrepreneurial spirit, Steve doesn’t encourage students to establish their own businesses right after graduation and encourages them to first accumulate experience from large firms. “When you feel you are capable of feeding a company for at least six months, then consider doing it,” said Steve.
George and Steve both believe that partners are key to the success of a business and that partners should be reliable, responsible, capable and willing to solve problems.
