Startups inspire world in Hong Kong

Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder & CEO of RISE & Web Summit, delivers the opening speech at the RISE 2017 conference at the Hong Kong Convention Center, Tuesday. The largest tech conference in Asia will take place through Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Park Jae-hyuk

By Park Jae-hyuk

HONG KONG ─ The trendiest startups and most successful companies have gathered in this Asian city to inspire the world at the RISE 2017 conference from Tuesday through Thursday.

"For the next three days, there'll be more than 250 speakers, not just here but spread out at a number of stages across the venue. I hope you're going to have an incredible time," Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder & CEO of RISE & Web Summit, said in his opening speech.

Casey Lau, founder of Startup HK, said, "We've got a great lineup of women as tech speakers, men as tech speakers. We even have children in tech. On the third day we actually have the youngest startup ever deliver a PITCH on this stage."

PITCH refers to the startup competition at RISE that brings together the world's leading early-stage startups for a live on-stage battle.

Speakers from tech companies, global media and notable startups have begun to share their knowledge and experiences at this, Asia's largest tech conference, which is in its third year.

Korean startups also opened their booths at the venue to broaden their networks and become familiar with the knowhow of global companies.

"We're seeking to expand our presence in the global market through RISE," said Choi Hyo-sun, chief operating officer at the Korean tourism startup Yana, who will attend the PITCH today. "Still, Korean startups remain reluctant to participate in such global events."

People from western tech firms, including Uber, Google, Facebook and Airbus, are attending the conference as well, showing their awareness of their growing Chinese rivals, such as the Alibaba Group.

According to the organizers, the number of U.S. attendees has doubled from the previous year.

Alibaba Group Co-Founder Joe Tsai, left, speaks with South China Morning Post CEO Gary Liu and Kim Yun-hee of the Wall Street Journal during a session at RISE 2017 at the Hong Kong Convention Center, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Park Jae-hyuk

During a session Tuesday, Joe Tsai, co-founder & executive vice chairman of the Alibaba Group, talked about the reason for the group's spending hundreds of millions dollars to buy the traditional news company the South China Morning Post.

"We bought the South China Morning Post with a vision to do two things. Number one, we wanted to tell the biggest stories in our lifetime, which is China. Number two, we wanted to take the 114-year-old newspaper and put it into the digital age," Tsai said.

"Consumer behavior will continue to change. I do think that a technology trend that will affect our industry significantly is going to be artificial intelligence," the paper's CEO Gary Liu Liu said. "People are going to start asking devices questions and they'll expect to get answers back as news."

Andrew MacDonald, general manager of Uber's emerging markets, will speak today about Uber's strategies for survival amid the rise of the ride-sharing market in Asia. Paul Eremenko, chief technology officer of Airbus, will discuss the future of the flight industry, Thursday.

The most surprising event is expected to be a debate between two robots.

Sophia and Han, both of which were created by Hanson Robotics, will debate the future of humanity. The robots can hold natural conversations on any topic of your choosing, according to David Hanson, founder of the robotics firm.

Media and bloggers from more than 100 countries are set to cover the global conference. They are looking forward to becoming inspired from RISE 2017 as well.

Produced by the team for Web Summit, Europe's largest tech conference attracting more than 50,000 people, RISE has grown into an event that draws over 550 journalists, 500 international investors, 600 startups and 14,000 individuals.

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