Tmall raises question - what has happened to HK's innovative spirit?

Since Alibaba's Tmall online supermarket officially launched in Hong Kong on June 18 I have already placed five orders and spent more than 2,000 yuan ($295, or HK$2,300) in total on some small household items, mostly snacks including beef jerky, chili paste and dairy products made on the Chinese mainland which I have enjoyed since I was a little girl.

Usually the package arrives the day after I place the order.

I came from the mainland and have been working and living in Hong Kong for nine years. Finding out that I can finally use my Alipay and buy the snacks I loved, and have them delivered to my doorstep, feels like a special holiday for me.

I shared the snacks with my friends and colleagues and now almost everyone I know buys things on Tmall.

All is well, only I really hoped that this was not Tmall, not part of a mainland e-commerce giant's "overseas strategy". I sincerely wished this was a Hong Kong company, which developed a new e-commerce platform or a new online payment method that made a huge splash in the city.

Because it is a little disappointing that Hong Kong entrepreneurs and retailers do not take e-commerce and electronic payment seriously enough.

Industry experts that I interviewed keep telling me Hong Kong is a very compact city, very convenient, unlike some remote areas on the mainland; people can buy whatever they want whenever they want it.

Obviously that's not true - the wonderful snacks brought by Tmall were nowhere to be found in Hong Kong. Long before Tmall online supermarket was launched, nine out of 10 girls I know would use Taobao for cheap but chic clothes, so Hong Kong people do shop online. The demand for online shopping is real.

Then people would argue that Hong Kong already has the Octopus card, which is very convenient; any other payment method may not pay the bill as quickly and conveniently as Octopus. Besides introducing new payment channels may increase the burden on local retailers, particularly small ones.

One popular saying is that if there is real demand in the market, these things will happen naturally.

Under this philosophy, electronic payment systems in Hong Kong have lagged far behind the mainland's. Apple Pay entered the Hong Kong market months after it started on the mainland, and only in the second half of last year, five major electronic payment operators - including Tencent's WeChat Pay and Alibaba-backed Alipay - were granted licenses to operate multi-purpose, stored value mobile payment systems in Hong Kong.

One of my friends who recently moved from Beijing to Hong Kong told me she could not believe so many shops and restaurants only take cash, and people must pay cash for taxi rides. In Beijing, you can scan a QR code and pay with your mobile phone in the farmers market.

I'm wondering, when did Hong Kong start to take a back seat when it comes to innovation and trying new things?

When the Octopus fare collection system was officially launched in September 1997, it was one of the earliest forms of electronic money the world has ever seen, it was the same small and compact city as it is today, so what about the innovative spirit? Has it changed since then?

(HK Edition 07/24/2017 page8)