Figures released by Interactive Audience Measurement Asia, a Hong Kong-based Internet research specialist, show that Internet banking is finally taking off in Hong Kong. E-banking has taken a while to infiltrate, whilst the popularity of online securities still lags behind other markets.
Interactive Audience Measurement Asia's figures offer some optimism for the future of online financial transactions. Two banking websites in particular saw a surge in visitors during the last week of September. HSBC's Hong Kong website (hsbc.com.hk) witnessed a tremendous jump from about 21,000 people logging on at home at the beginning of September to around 60,000 at the end of the month. There also was a big increase in the number of Hong Kong home Internet users who visited hangseng.com in the last week of September.
The explanation for the dramatic leap in visitor numbers to the two sites was the opening of the Mass Transit Railway Corp (MTRC) privatisation share offer, the first initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong where applications could be made online. For three days during the last week of September, applications for the offering were available via sites operated by financial institutions, including hsbc.com.hk and hangseng.com.
So the high-profile IPO of MTRC has played a key rold in bringing Internet-based personal financial services into the mainstream. Many Hong Kong investors no doubt embraced the development, having witnessed the massive queues and near-chaos of other IPO's earlier this year, Tom.com being just one that springs to mind.
However, whilst Hong Kong's first online IPO was a resounding success, there is still a long way to go. The number of online applicants represented less than 10 per cent of the total investors. In other countries there are specialist companies, such as E*Offering in US and EPO.com in Europe, that have introduced the pure e-IPO where the offering is exclusively online. According to Steve Yap, a director at Interactive Audience Measurement Asia, the success of future Hong Kong online IPOs will depend on the willingness of financial institutions to offer these services, the willingness of consumers to use such services and a market environment that regains its taste for IPOs in general.
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