Survey Shows Steady Growth of Mobile Commerce Users among SMEs

Local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are gradually adopting mobile commerce in their daily business operations, according to a survey jointly conducted by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, HKSAR Government, during the second half of 2005.

The "Survey on Mobile Commerce Adoption in Hong Kong" was conducted annually to study the deployment of mobile commerce by the local business sector, in which 97.7% of the establishments* are SMEs. In this survey, a total of 2,008 local establishments were interviewed by telephone from July to December 2005.

Commenting on the latest findings, Ms Wendy Wong, Principal Consultant (Strategic Information & Intelligence) of HKPC, said, "While application of mobile commerce is still not common among local businesses, local establishments adopting mobile facilities have been gradually increasing over the years. This survey found that 7.6% of local establishments have adopted mobile facilities in their operations, as compared to only 1.0% in 2001, and 5.3% in 2004."

According to Ms Wong, the majority of the mobile commerce users were from the trading (55.4%) and service (32.1%) sectors. Despite their relatively low adoption rate among all sectors, manufacturing establishments have become more receptive to mobile commerce, accounting for 5.0% of the mobile commerce users as compared to 2.7% in 2004.

This survey also found that over 90% of the establishments who have adopted wireless technology cited 'browsing information on the web', 'sending and receiving e-mails', and 'sending documents' as the most popular applications. "There are marked increases on establishments who adopted more advanced applications (25%) as compared to the previous survey. It reflects that local companies are expanding the scope of mobile commerce applications as they realize the gain in efficiency in their daily business operations," she added.

On the key benefits in adopting mobile commerce, 'increased work efficiency', 'enhanced customer service quality' and 'enhanced communication between onsite staff and the company' were cited by SMEs.

For those who have not yet employed wireless technology in their business operations, some changes in the reasons quoted were noted. "Comparing this survey's findings with the 2004 survey on the reasons for non-adoption, we found that the number of companies who quoted 'not required by partners' or 'not required by existing customers' has significantly decreased, while those cited 'high investment cost' and 'lack of appropriate solutions/services’ have surged. Wireless services and technology providers are urged to address SMEs' concerns over the costs involved and their need for custom-made solutions to enhance the adoption of mobile commerce among local companies," added Ms Wong.

For details of the "Survey on Mobile Commerce Adoption in Hong Kong 2005", please contact HKPC's Ms Wendy Wong at tel. (852) 2788 5825 or (852) 2788 5815, or e-mail to sfwong@hkpc.org.

For media enquiries, please contact:
Ms Betty Lee
General Manager
Corporate Communications & Events
Tel: (852) 2788 5895
Fax: (852) 2788 5056
E-mail: justina@hkpc.org
Website: www.hkpc.org

7 March 2006

* This survey covers local establishments that are active in business operation.