Some vendors at the annual Hong Kong Computer and Communications Festival are predicting a drop in business of up to 20 per cent compared with last year, and have cast doubt on the effectiveness of measures aimed at luring more mainland Chinese visitors.
The four-day fair, set to start on Friday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, is poised to break records with 300 exhibitors this year.
They include 120 software companies from the mainland as well as from the countries in the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s plan to grow global trade, making it the largest expo since 2009.
For the first time, organisers were offering a limited number of tickets to mainland visitors through Alipay for HK$1 (13 US cents) from Wednesday to Sunday.
Alipay is a payment app owned by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which also owns the South China Morning Post.
But vendors cast doubt on the offer’s effectiveness in luring mainlanders to cross the border and visit the festival.
Saaleh Hafeez, product manager at Felton Distribution, said the market overall had been slow in 2024, and he expected profit from the fair to drop by 20 per cent year on year.
He attributed the potentially lukewarm reaction from mainlanders to price differences. He said mainland residents might buy computer products from e-commerce websites at up to “half the price in Hong Kong”.
“So we don’t see why they would come here to buy these things,” he said, adding that he expected the firm’s main market would remain mostly locals.
Another booth operator agreed there was a lull in the market, pointing to the changed spending habits of locals as the reason.
“We expected the economy to improve after borders reopened, but it has become quite clear the opposite has happened – consumer spending has weakened,” said Jeffrey Hau Chak-kin, founder of Azure E-Sports.
The company sells gaming chairs among other computer products through its brand Zenox.
Hau said that following the Covid-19 pandemic, customers would rather spend on travel than upgrade their household computer systems, especially as many of them might have already have done so during lockdown, and it would be another few years before they felt inclined to do it again.
Standard tickets for the festival are priced at HK$35 (US$4.49). Admission is free for children one metre (3 feet 4 inches) tall or shorter.
Those older than 65 or holders of a Registration Card for People with Disabilities can also get in for free.
The festival will feature a dedicated artificial intelligence-themed zone to highlight the latest advancements in computer vision, machine learning and gaming applications. A cybersecurity competition will also be held under the theme of online data protection.
Another dedicated zone will showcase innovative technologies for elderly people to tackle the city’s ageing population, with a focus on accessibility and inclusivity.
