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Silicon Valley import hopes to lead Hong Kong’s charge in mobile innovation

MotherApp’s founder Ken Law is the 2016 winner of the DHL/SCMP Young Entrepreneur Award

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Ken Law, chief executive of MotherApp, says the company success was partly due to its decision to focus on a new area where there were few competitors. Photo: Edmond So
Sarah Zhengin Beijing

Ken Law Kin-lun, 40, never wanted to be a businessman.

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A computer engineer by training with a long-standing love for physics and computer science, Law grew up in Hong Kong believing business was an unsavoury field centred on making money.

But after a stint at Google, Law realised he could create a business rooted in his passions, and have a positive impact on the world. In 2008, he became the brainchild behind MotherApp – a company that creates and develops mobile applications, literally the mother of mobile apps.

In the beginning, there were only three staff members including himself as the founder and CEO, providing companies with mobile technical expertise.

But over the years, MotherApp grew into a mobile strategy consultancy with over 60 employees in Hong Kong and the US, and a list of clients including The Financial Times, Standard Chartered, and most recently, Hong Kong’s Ocean Park.

Right now, if you want to Uber anything, someone has already thought of that, so it’s already too late. So you want to do Uber when my mom hasn’t heard of Uber before
Ken Law Kin-lun

The apps and mobile solutions spearheaded by MotherApp aim to solve problems for end-users. For example, the Ocean Park app helps with crowd control for the millions of people who visit the theme park every year.

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