Online auction sites gaining popularity among Hong Kongers

By SMBWorld Asia Editors | Feb 1, 2012

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An area that is generated significant interest among Hong Kong Internet users is online auction websites, according to Experian Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence service provider.

According to Experien, TaoBao jumped up in the rankings to become the champion among all of the auction sites with 35.9 per cent share of visits, surpassing Yahoo! Auctions Hong Kong (31.9 per cent), Paipai (14.3 per cent) and eBay (7.4 per cent).

In Experien's first annual analysis of web searches, data also showed that Hong Kongers not only visit TaoBao for apparel and accessories, but also for travel packages. Taobao Trip ranked top among alltravel agencies websites with 10.7 per cent share of visits, followed by Ctrip.com with 8.2 per cent and Qunar.com with 7.2 per cent, signifying theincreasing competition among Mainland China travel agency sites in Hong Kong.

“Auction sites like Taobao as well as group buying sites have become popular choices for people when seeking out deals. We expect this phenomenon to continue and see more businesses target these platforms to market their products and generate brand awareness through advertising,” said Graeme Beardsell.

The study also finds that the popularity of social networking as a way to connect with people and brands continues to grow. Facebook alone accounted for 43.7 per cent share of visits in December 2011 and the term Facebook ranked top among all search terms in all categories.

Among the top three in social networking sites in Hong Kong, YouTube is the only website with a continuous increase in share of visits in 2011 compared to Facebook and Discuss.

Hong Kongers’ interest in sharing information on forums hasn’t waned, with local forums including Discuss, Uwants and HK Golden making it into the top five with 3.7 per cent, 2.4 per cent and 2.2 per cent share of visits respectively.

Electronics

Hong Kong is a city full of IT gadget enthusiasts who like to research and review the latest gadgets and gizmos online. The top five electronic sites visited by Hong Kong Internet users were Apple (46.8 per cent) Review33.com (7.19 per cent), Samsung Hong Kong (6.51 per cent), Engadget Chinese (5.16 per cent) and Sony Corporation of Hong Kong (3.78 per cent).

Samsung has been a fast mover with an accelerating increase in share of visits to both Samsung Hong Kong (176 per cent increase) and Samsung websites (214 per cent increase), demonstrating the growing popularity of the brand in 2011 with its recent product launches.

Apple-related search terms including apple store, iphone and itunes, occupied seven out of the top 10 search terms driving traffic to electronics, in a 12 rolling week period ending 31st December 2011. Samsung made its way into the top 10, ranking 2nd, whereas Sony and Canon ranked 9th and 10th respectively.

Hong Kong consumers went to Price.com.hk to check out appliances and electronics, accounting for 33.3 per cent of share of visits in the shopping and classifieds – electronics category.