School News

The HKU-Lingnan-Florida Platform Competition Conference co-organised by HKU Faculty of Business and Economics and ICGD Industrial Economics and Competition Policy Programme, Lingnan University Centre for Competition Policy and Regulation, and University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law was held on June 20 and 21, 2019. Over 90 participants from across the globe, including seasoned legal practitioners, industry professionals and academics attended the two-day conference.

Dean Hongbin Cai

Professor Hongbin Cai, Dean of HKU Faculty of Business and Economics kick-started the two-day event with a warm welcome to our international speakers and participants. He highlights the importance of fair competition amongst firms, which is instrumental to economic development. Given the topic of competition law and policy as well as anti-monopoly is increasingly relevant in China including Hong Kong, the conference is an excellent opportunity to bridge the minds of world-class academic researchers and professional practitioners to discuss these business and law disciplines.

Mr. Xuan Wang
Mr. Brent Snyder

The first keynote speaker, Mr. Xuan Wang, Principal Staff Member of Anti-monopoly Bureau, State Administration for Market Regulation, talked about the anti-monopoly scene in China and its future outlook in his keynote speech titled “Digital Platform and Competition Policy”, whereas our second keynote speaker, Mr. Brent Snyder, Chief Executive Officer from the Hong Kong Competition Commission shared his insights on the enforcement of Hong Kong’s Competition Ordinance.

Panel one: Enforcement in Multi-sided Platforms

Four panel sessions were also presented. Panel one discussed “Enforcement in Multi-sided Platforms”. Speakers include Ms. Na Dawson (Analysis Group Inc.), Dr. Youngjin Jung (Kim & Chang), Mr. Alexander Okuliar (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe) and Mr. Sadaaki Suwazono (Japan Faire Trade Commission). The panel was moderated by Professor Wing Suen from HKU Faculty of Business and Economics and Ms. Auraellia Wang from Google.

Panel two: Mergers in the Digital Economy

Panel two explored “Mergers in the Digital Economy”. Speakers include Mr. Herbert Fung (Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore), Mr. Wayne Leach (King & Wood Mallesons), Dr. Wesley Wang (T&D Associates) and Dr. Jason Wu (Compass Lexecon). The panel was moderated by Mr. Andrew Foster from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

The third panel is titled “Big Data and AI”. Mr. John Choi (Shin & Kim), Ms. Patricia Galvan (US Federal Trade Commission) and Mr. Atsushi Yamada (Anderson Mori & Tomotsune) were speakers of the panel, and was moderated by Ms. Ruth Chen (Facebook),

Ms. Patricia Galvan
Ms. Ruth Chen

Panel four: Platforms in e-Commerce and Fintech. Ms. Karen Leung (left), Professor Chen Lin (second left), Mr. Knut Fournier (third left) and Professor Daniel Sokol (right)

The final panel focused on “Platforms in e-Commerce and Fintech”. Panel moderator Mr. Knut Fournier was joined by three speakers including Ms. Karen Leung (Uber), Professor Chen Lin (HKU Faculty of Business and Economics) and Professor Daniel Sokol (University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law).

Day two of the conference focused primarily on bridging the understanding of online platforms across academic disciplines. Conference co-organiser Professor Daniel Sokol, University of Florida Research Foundation Professor and University Term Professor from University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law began the day with a lively and interactive opening and chaired the first paper session. With four speakers, the session covered a dynamic range of research papers. Professor Kenneth Cheng from University of Florida explored optimal pricing models, Dr. Ruomeng Cui from Emory University examined the value of high-quality logistics, Dr. Sunny Huang from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology compared agency models and wholesale models, and Dr. Angela Zhang, Associate Professor from HKU Faculty of Law discussed crowd-judging.

Professor Lin Ping, conference co-organiser from Lingnan University chaired the second paper session with three speakers. Professor Hung-Hao Chang from National Taiwan University explored the impact of Airbnb on the hotel industry and its implications to antitrust enforcement. Professor Guofu Tan from University of Southern California focused on price competition in multi-sided markets and Dr. Chiara Farronato from Harvard Business School discussed the consumer protection in an online world.

In the third paper session chaired by Professor Jin Li from HKU Faculty of Business and Economics, three speakers presented their papers. Dr. Wesley Koo from INSEAD talked about platform rules and government regulations, Dr. Kelvin Kwok from HKU Faculty of Law discussed television platform competition: the TVB case and Dr. Steven Xu from HKU Faculty of Business and Economics presented his paper on online reviews.

Dr. Steven Xu

The final session chaired by conference co-orgnaniser Professor Yuk-fai Fong of HKU Faculty of Business and Economics also had three speakers. Professor Ramnath Chellappa from Emory University focused on platform preannouncement strategies, Professor Jay Choi from Michigan State University and Yonsei University reviewed competition on platform markets with ‘zero price’ products and Mr. Richard Xu, Ph.D Studence in Economics at the University of Southern California examined the impact of ad-avoidance technologies in the market for video streaming.

On both days of the conference, practitioners and academics from different sectors and multi-disciplines alike engaged in fruitful, dynamic and thought-provoking discussions in the field of online platforms and competition analysis.

We would like to extend our thanks to the following organisations and companies for sponsoring the conference:

Analysis Group Inc.
Compass Lexecon
Kim & Chang
King & Wood Mallesons
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Shin & Kim
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
T&D Associates
University of Florida Fredic G. Levin College of Law