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[Business in the Epidemic City] Cyberport's start-up of the epidemic market supports companies to ensure employment and Hong Kong people are working together

2020-07-30T23:10:21.494Z


The new crown pneumonia epidemic has hit the global economy. In the first half of this year, nearly 90% of events and exhibitions in Hong Kong were cancelled or postponed. Large-scale exhibitions and events were resumed indefinitely, and the expo industry fell into a "super winter". The so-called "lips and teeth are cold", event organizers and exhibitors complained endlessly, and companies that provide management platforms for physical events, such as Cyberport community member EventXtra, also saw their business plummet by 50%. In addition, many companies have no choice but to lay off workers during the epidemic. The government announced earlier that the unemployment rate in Hong Kong had risen to 6.2%, a 15-year high. Toby, an online life service matching platform that is also a member of the Cyberport community, opens up another source of income for freelancers and professionals whose livelihoods are affected by the epidemic. How can EventXtra seize the opportunity in the epidemic market and reverse the business crisis? How does Toby help experts who have a skill to increase their income in the epidemic?


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Written by: Wang Yuechen

2020-07-31 07:00

The last update date: 2020-07-31 07:00

The new crown pneumonia epidemic has hit the global economy. In the first half of this year, nearly 90% of events and exhibitions in Hong Kong were cancelled or postponed. Large-scale exhibitions and events were resumed indefinitely, and the expo industry fell into a "super winter". The so-called "lips and teeth are cold", event organizers and exhibitors complained endlessly, and companies that provide management platforms for physical events, such as Cyberport community member EventXtra, also saw their business plummet by 50%. In addition, many companies have no choice but to lay off workers during the epidemic. The government announced earlier that the unemployment rate in Hong Kong had risen to 6.2%, a 15-year high. Toby, an online life service matching platform that is also a member of the Cyberport community, opens up another source of income for freelancers and professionals whose livelihoods are affected by the epidemic.

How can EventXtra seize the opportunity in the epidemic market and reverse the business crisis? How does Toby help experts who have a skill to increase their income in the epidemic?

EventXtra develops virtual event expo platform, turning crisis into opportunity

Affected by the epidemic, EventXtra’s business volume in the first quarter of this year dropped by 50% compared to the same period last year. However, the team did not respond negatively. Instead, it found new opportunities in the crisis and developed a one-stop virtual event software to help customers turn physical events into Held online, it succeeded in making the company come alive! Thanks to the virtual event software, EventXtra successfully opened up a way for customers, and the business surged 300% in the second quarter. Qizhe Lu, co-founder of EventXtra and young leader of Forbes Asia: "Virtual events not only reduce our costs, but also increase the number of views. This helps companies expand their contacts and is more cost-effective than physical events."

EventXtra develops a virtual event planning program to allow event organizers to move physical events or exhibitions online, so that the event will continue to proceed as scheduled without geographical restrictions under the epidemic.

At the beginning of the year, the market conditions were dead and dead, and EventXtra knew that it couldn't wait to die, and immediately started to develop a virtual event plan. When the event promoters were unable to do anything in response to the social distancing guidelines, the EventXtra team immediately launched an online exhibition platform, which successfully helped existing customers solve their problems and attracted many new customers. Since the Beta version was launched at the end of March, the number of customer enquiries received by EventXtra in the subsequent Samsung period has tripled over the same period last month. At present, 80% of the company's business has been converted to virtual exhibitions. During the period from June to July this year, EventXtra’s virtual event planning program has attracted 3 million applications, enabling the company to still earn tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in revenue despite the adversity; two months after the launch of the new program, EventXtra became even more successful with Japan’s largest The exhibition organizer signs a 7-digit contract.

"Mixed reality and virtuality" become the future trend 

EventXtra's virtual event planning solution allows event organizers to hold events in the form of video conferences or live broadcasts. It also adds advertising spaces, seminar rooms and exhibitor booths, etc., to cooperate with the various functions of the platform to enhance interaction with online audiences , So that the participants feel as if they are in person. Lu Qizhe said that regardless of exhibitors or international event operators, they have considered virtual exhibitions in the past, but they finally gave up the idea for different reasons. The emergence of the epidemic happened to drive companies to accelerate their digital transformation. After customers have experienced the advantages of virtual expo, they can try to hold events in a hybrid format in the future. "Online virtual activities and physical activities can support each other, allowing more people to break through geographical restrictions and participate in different activities such as trade shows, film festivals, online conferences or business exchanges."

Toby helps self-employed people survive the epidemic

An epidemic has caused many workers to lose their jobs and many families have lost their financial support. Claire, who is engaged in social media promotion, is a real example of livelihoods affected by the epidemic. Claire joined an online marketing company immediately after graduation. At the beginning of her career, the outbreak of the epidemic forced her to switch from full-time to part-time, and her income was cut by half. Because of her junior qualifications, it is even more difficult for Claire to find a job in the epidemic city. Fortunately, Claire has always used the intermediary platform Toby to provide clients with writing, translation and online marketing services as a freelancer when she was working. As the epidemic situation has increased the demand for corporate network marketing, the flexible working hours of part-time job have freed her up. More time to take the job. In the past six months, suddenly "being her own boss" she succeeded in taking over 10 marketing jobs through Toby, half of which were long-term partnerships, earning more money than her full-time job before, and also enriching her resume. Toby Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jason Cheng: "The epidemic has made life and business difficult. Therefore, we specially offer discounts to service providers in designated affected industries. We hope to do our best to bring them more Career Opportunities."

The epidemic has caused many people to "stop their hands and mouths". Toby, an online life service matching platform, allows them to find customers with their skills, and even find another way out to open up another source of income.

100,000 service cases, business over 100 million

Toby, an online life service matching platform, specializes in helping self-employed people, SMEs and freelancers find job opportunities. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, it has successfully facilitated more than 100,000 service cases and helped more than 10,000 people in different occupations find customers. About 150 million Hong Kong dollars in business. Whether it's freelance workers and Slash people who are "stopping their mouths and mouths", or migrant workers who have been laid off due to the epidemic, Toby can use Toby to find customers and even find another way out. Service users looking for experts only need to make a service request on the platform, which is processed quickly by the system, and then they can receive a tailor-made quotation. Service users can choose the most suitable expert based on the offerer’s resume and past user reviews. At present, Toby has a new service request or quotation every 1.5 seconds on average.

Under the epidemic, Toby's service categories such as household services, tutoring, and online homework have become popular demand, while IT technology categories, including web applications, web and App content writing, and data input service needs, have increased by more than 15%. Toby is even more aware of market needs and launched the "Medical-grade Epidemic Prevention and Deep Disinfection Service" approved by the World Health Organization and the European Union to help the public protect their home hygiene and work together to fight the epidemic.

The novel coronavirus epidemic has brought severe challenges to the world. In the face of a completely different world and life, the application of digital technology has become the key to adapting to the new landscape and seizing new opportunities.

As early as February this year, some young entrepreneurs in the Cyberport realized that their innovative solutions can contribute to the fight against the epidemic, and thus launched the "Dare to Create and Fight the Epidemic" operation. Start-ups and technology companies in the Cyberport community also quickly gathered to provide the public with digital technology solutions to overcome the current difficulties.

So far, the Cyberport "Dare to Fight the Epidemic" action has recruited more than 60 applications in the community to provide anti-epidemic and response to the new normal for frontline medical staff, parents, schools and students who are still adapting to home study, and home quarantine Disadvantaged groups such as, grassroots families, and large and small enterprises in various industries that have been hit hard to meet current needs. The action provides resources and references for local and overseas companies or institutions in need, and at the same time actively connects the cooperation of different startups and companies in the community to jointly fight the epidemic.

As society enters a new normal, the demand for digital technology is bound to increase. Cyberport and its start-up community will continue to stick to their posts, move forward, and leverage the power of digital technology with the solidarity of "dare to fight the epidemic" Resilience leads the society to embrace innovation, realize opportunities, promote the sustained growth of the new economy, and walk with Hong Kong on the road of exploring the new normal.

For details, please visit: https://istartup.hk/braving-the-epidemic/tc/

New Coronary Pneumonia Anti-epidemic City Business Epidemic City Life Virtual Events Digital Technology Cyberport New Normal Dare to Create Anti-epidemic Startup Feed

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2020-07-30

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