FT Chinese Column

Starting in 2024, a doll named Labubu—with pointy little ears, devil-like large eyes, and a grin revealing nine sharp fangs—took the world by storm. In the first half of 2025, Labubu’s sales reached 4.8 billion RMB. What amazed the market about Labubu was not only its formidable money-making power, but also its unstoppable momentum in overseas markets.

Hong Kong was once famed worldwide as a “Shopping Paradise,” with retail serving as a key pillar of its economy. From cutting-edge electronics to international luxury goods, the city attracted consumers from around the globe on the strength of its reputation for quality and exchange-rate advantages. Today, the rise of mainland E-Commerce platforms is profoundly reshaping Hong Kong’s commercial ecosystem.

Driven by the wave of digitalization, livestream e-commerce has rapidly risen to become one of the most phenomenal marketing methods in the e-commerce sector. With real-time interaction and immersive experiences, it has successfully captured the attention of hundreds of millions of consumers.

On August 1, 2025, Hong Kong’s “Stablecoin Ordinance” will take effect, marking China’s gradual participation in the stablecoin market and its exploration of how to use Hong Kong, an offshore financial center, to promote the internationalization of the RMB through stablecoins. To answer this question, we need to understand, rationally and objectively, the development logic of offshore RMB stablecoins in the context of the current heightened market sentiment.

We have been listening to discussions about Labubu’s innovative marketing and customer engagement, given its global success today. However, how can it shed light on Hong Kong’s RWA economy?

In 2023, the Belgian newspaper Dernière Heure revealed that the ride-hailing platform Uber charges different prices to users based on their phone’s battery level.[1] Specifically, for the same trip, if your phone has 84% battery remaining, Uber charges 16.6 euros; but if you only have 12% battery left, the price rises to 17.56 euros. The logic behind this pricing is obvious: if your phone is about to run out of battery, you’re probably in no position to wait, and have no choice but to accept Uber’s higher price

When institutional investors cast their votes against company directors, they increasingly do something that was once rare: they explain why. These "voting rationales" — brief written explanations accompanying dissenting votes — are emerging as a surprisingly effective tool for driving corporate governance reform, according to new research analyzing nearly 800,000 such disclosures.

In the era of online shopping, the so-called "no discounts for old customers or dogs" policy often leaves loyal consumers feeling helpless. Many e-commerce platforms implement a "one person, one price" strategy, and even tailor prices based on users' purchasing habits and browsing histories, causing different consumers to pay different prices for the same product. In addition, airline ticket prices fluctuate constantly, with the phenomenon of "the more you search, the more expensive it gets" becoming the norm.

In today's highly competitive business environment, innovative collaboration has become an important way for companies to gain an advantage. In innovation-driven partnerships, large enterprises often collaborate with small technology firms, integrating the latter's core technologies into their own products to drive product innovation and expand market share. To secure collaboration opportunities, small enterprises also need to demonstrate to potential partners the application potential and market prospects of their technology integration.