Hong Kong companies in social marketing, urban farming sign up for Middle East expansion

Hong Kong companies are looking for new markets for growth beyond the city’s borders, and some of them, like social Wi-fi platform FansWave, have their eyes on the Middle East.

Twelve years after the marketing company established itself in Hong Kong, it is now expanding into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through a partnership with consulting and investment firm Access Group International.

There are ample opportunities in the Middle East, and this is just the first step in FansWave’s global expansion, said co-founder and chief operating officer Decem Yuen Ching-zhi.

The partnership between Access Group International and FansWave was one of 25 agreements signed during the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong on Wednesday and Thursday. Two other Hong Kong companies, Allied Environmental Consultants Group and agritech company Farmacy, also signed cooperation agreements with Access Group International to expand in the Middle East.

FansWave provides a platform that allows businesses to offer free Wi-fi to their customers in exchange for valuable user data. Users sign in using their social media accounts, providing demographic data that allows the business to build followers for its social accounts, as well as to target customers with promotions and advertising not only while they are connected to the Wi-fi but also later on.