Hong Kong's unique blend of safety, advanced infrastructure, and international accessibility makes it an ideal base for living and investing. The city's status as a global financial hub is further bolstered by its investor-friendly tax policies, robust legal system, and proximity to Mainland China, offering unparalleled opportunities for business and cultural engagement.
You just need a bachelor's degree from one of ~200 universities around the world and 3 years work experience in the last 5 years to qualify. Full list of universities: https://www.immd.gov.hk/pdf/aggregate_list.pdf
You don't need to have a job offer in HK to be eligible. You can move here first and have 2 years to look for a job and apply for a working visa.
HK also has investment visa options and other types of working visas, but this visa is probably the easiest for a working professional to qualify for.
With Luckin Coffee entering Hong Kong. I think Hong Kong is definitely the best place to live haha. if you’re interested in my Luckin Coffee analysis then please check out my post on it
Upon reading your Luckin Coffee analysis, it is clear that they've tailored their business model to suit the Chinese consumer. Smaller stores with minimal seating designed for takeout orders means a lower cost structure compared with Starbucks, which largely imported its US model of a "third place" for people to spend time. Luckin's model allows it to pass the savings onto the consumer and is clearly more suited to the cost sensitive Chinese consumer.
In terms of targeting cost-sensitive consumers and selling cheaper products, the contrast between Luckin and Starbucks could be analogous to Pinduoduo and Alibaba in e-commerce.
Obviously, when it comes to the business model, the key difference between e-commerce and coffee shops is that PDD can offer an enormous variety of products. PDD can draw a consumer in with a very cheap, "loss leader" product and pretty soon, given the massive product selection on PDD, the consumer finds themselves buying products from PDD to suit all of their lifestyle needs. Once people get addicted to the app, PDD can sell more products with better margins than the initial loss leader. This allows PDD to build a high volume business with decent margins, which is what has propelled the stock price.
At this point, I don't see a similar "loss leader" + wallet share expansion strategy for Luckin, though that could change in the future.
I don’t think that Luckin even wants to replicate the Starbucks strategy because there’s simply too much competition within that space internationally as well as domestically in China with very high costs as well. Luckin’s strategy is well suited for expansion into ASEAN, Hong Kong, The Middle East and India where consumers usually chase value, it’s easier to scale, and where competition is usually low. Actually I think it’s wrong to even assume that I’m comparing Luckin to Starbucks. Starbucks is struggling because of its own business faults not Luckin. Starbucks prices a single latte at 33 RMB which is in the price range of Manner and M Stand.
Luckin competes with Cotti Coffee and other budget coffee franchises and in that space Luckin has proven to be the Alibaba vs Cotti’s Pinduoduo. Cotti operates at massive net losses to undercut Luckin by 1-2 RMB while Luckin has said that they will stray away from the price competition and discounting and focus more on their innovative collaborations like the ones with Moutai.
I think you might’ve just given my article a surface level read because I’ve covered all these points in my post
Cotti has also been aggressively expanding like PDD planning to add 40,000 stores this year while Luckin’s expansion has been more tempered so yeah I consider it to be the Alibaba of the Chinese coffee market while Manner and M Stand are more of Farfetch or Tienmao (T Mall)
Hong Kong's unique blend of safety, advanced infrastructure, and international accessibility makes it an ideal base for living and investing. The city's status as a global financial hub is further bolstered by its investor-friendly tax policies, robust legal system, and proximity to Mainland China, offering unparalleled opportunities for business and cultural engagement.
Agreed!
So how does a Westerner plant a flag in HK?
In terms of visas, the HK government has introduced the Top Talent Pass scheme: https://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/services/visas/TTPS.html
You just need a bachelor's degree from one of ~200 universities around the world and 3 years work experience in the last 5 years to qualify. Full list of universities: https://www.immd.gov.hk/pdf/aggregate_list.pdf
You don't need to have a job offer in HK to be eligible. You can move here first and have 2 years to look for a job and apply for a working visa.
HK also has investment visa options and other types of working visas, but this visa is probably the easiest for a working professional to qualify for.
Thank you, good information.
Visited over ten years ago and still dreaming of the dim sum I had there!
HK food is amazing!
Interesting. Definitely gonna have to visit HK then
HK is a great place to visit!
With Luckin Coffee entering Hong Kong. I think Hong Kong is definitely the best place to live haha. if you’re interested in my Luckin Coffee analysis then please check out my post on it
https://dragoninvest.substack.com/p/restaurant-analysis-series-part-1?r=53xvwu
Upon reading your Luckin Coffee analysis, it is clear that they've tailored their business model to suit the Chinese consumer. Smaller stores with minimal seating designed for takeout orders means a lower cost structure compared with Starbucks, which largely imported its US model of a "third place" for people to spend time. Luckin's model allows it to pass the savings onto the consumer and is clearly more suited to the cost sensitive Chinese consumer.
In terms of targeting cost-sensitive consumers and selling cheaper products, the contrast between Luckin and Starbucks could be analogous to Pinduoduo and Alibaba in e-commerce.
Obviously, when it comes to the business model, the key difference between e-commerce and coffee shops is that PDD can offer an enormous variety of products. PDD can draw a consumer in with a very cheap, "loss leader" product and pretty soon, given the massive product selection on PDD, the consumer finds themselves buying products from PDD to suit all of their lifestyle needs. Once people get addicted to the app, PDD can sell more products with better margins than the initial loss leader. This allows PDD to build a high volume business with decent margins, which is what has propelled the stock price.
At this point, I don't see a similar "loss leader" + wallet share expansion strategy for Luckin, though that could change in the future.
I don’t think that Luckin even wants to replicate the Starbucks strategy because there’s simply too much competition within that space internationally as well as domestically in China with very high costs as well. Luckin’s strategy is well suited for expansion into ASEAN, Hong Kong, The Middle East and India where consumers usually chase value, it’s easier to scale, and where competition is usually low. Actually I think it’s wrong to even assume that I’m comparing Luckin to Starbucks. Starbucks is struggling because of its own business faults not Luckin. Starbucks prices a single latte at 33 RMB which is in the price range of Manner and M Stand.
Luckin competes with Cotti Coffee and other budget coffee franchises and in that space Luckin has proven to be the Alibaba vs Cotti’s Pinduoduo. Cotti operates at massive net losses to undercut Luckin by 1-2 RMB while Luckin has said that they will stray away from the price competition and discounting and focus more on their innovative collaborations like the ones with Moutai.
I think you might’ve just given my article a surface level read because I’ve covered all these points in my post
Cotti has also been aggressively expanding like PDD planning to add 40,000 stores this year while Luckin’s expansion has been more tempered so yeah I consider it to be the Alibaba of the Chinese coffee market while Manner and M Stand are more of Farfetch or Tienmao (T Mall)
Okay, we will see how your thesis plays out over the next few years.
Yeah fair enough