HONG KONG—On any given business day, Hong Kong’s 7.2 million people take 12.4 million journeys on public transport, many of them coming into and out of the area of the city known as Central.
The neighborhood is home to finance giants including Bank of China, HSBC, and Citigroup, as well as the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It’s also the local headquarters of companies including Rolex and the law firm Clifford Chance, along with the city’s main government buildings and China’s People’s Liberation Army Force.
But since Hong Kong’s mass protests started, a daytime visit to Central or Wan Chai, the two neighborhoods abutting the agitation’s epicenter at Admiralty, has offered up glimpses of a post-apocalyptic Hong Kong. Because protesters have blocked roads and some businesses are keeping employees home, the neighborhoods during the day are eerily empty, with abandoned avenues and overpasses that normally teem with many of Hong Kong’s 18,000 taxis, 163 trams, thousands of buses, and half a million cars.
For the past two nights, the streets have filled up with protestors, but during the day it is possible to find yourself practically alone in the middle of a highway in one of the world’s most crowded cities.
The solitude has offered a unique glimpse of some of Hong Kong’s modern buildings. The streets outside the I.M. Pei-designed Bank of China Tower, which has distinctive, diamond patterned sides, are normally snarled with traffic; getting a clear picture of the 72-story tower from anywhere but the sidewalk below is normally difficult. Not today, though:
Ditto for the Lippo Center, a twin-towered complex across the street, designed by American architect Paul Rudolph, which attracted intrepid tourists who snapped once-in-a-lifetime selfies today from the road.
The short stretch of road known as Queensway normally is packed with multiple lanes of honking traffic and dinging trams. Today, a few pedestrians walked along the tram tracks:
Hong Kong’s abandoned streets also have proven a great place to shoot wedding photos. That’s the Chinese army’s headquarters with the inverted pyramid base, in the background on the left.
Just a couple of months ago, American online travel company Priceline (NASDAQ:PCLN) invested US$500 million into Ctrip (NASDAQ:CTRP) in the form of a convertible bond. The agreement allows for Priceline to simply collect interest on the bond, cash it in, or use it to buy Ctrip shares, although it cannot buy more than 10% of the company.
Now, Priceline’s Schedule 13D filing for September has made it clear that it has an even deeper interest in the Chinese online travel behemoth. In addition to converting the US$500 million bond into 6,145,350 ADSs of Ctrip stock, Priceline has also picked up another 2,171,170 ADSs, for a total market value of nearly $135 million. That means that at present, Priceline has invested about $635 million into Ctrip, and owns a 5.84% share.
(For those looking to diversify their portfolio, an ADS is an American Depository Share: a share of a foreign company that can be purchased at dollar value on American stock markets.)
In addition to Priceline’s share of Ctrip’s shares, the companies also have a commercial partnership that was significantly expanded as part of the initial US$500 million investment agreement. That agreement gives Ctrip customers access to some of Priceline’s offerings, like hotels and rental cars.
Kenya’s economy grew by roughly 25% today, when government statisticians decided that its annual output was worth 4.76 trillion shillings ($53.3 billion), instead of the 3.798 trillion shillings it had reported before.
The large jump was as due to a statistical update of GDP data known as rebasing. And although 25% is a big revision, a similar exercise in Nigeria earlier this year showed the economy there was a whopping 89% larger than previously estimated. That rebasing suddenly transformed Nigeria into the largest economy in Africa, surpassing South Africa.
The impact of the Nigerian statistical shift was much larger than Kenya’s because it was far more overdue. Prior to Nigeria’s revamp in April, it had been using 1990 as the base year for which it calculated economic growth. Not only did that mean prices were presented in 1990 terms, but GDP also didn’t properly account for fast-growing industries that developed largely since 1990, such as mobile communications. When Nigeria upgraded its statistics, it chose 2010 as its base year.
For its part, Kenya chose 2009 for its new base year. And it significantly boosted its estimates for a number of sectors of the economy, including communications, real estate, and financial services. It also increased the 2013 growth rate of the economy to 5.7%, up from the previously reported 4.7%.
So what does this mean to your average Kenyan? Pretty much nothing. (For the record, Kenya’s poverty statistics are also out of date, but 2005 numbers showed that roughly 20% of the country lived on less than $1.25 a day.)
The change in numbers merely reflects the government’s view that the economy is actually worth more than previously thought. This is not merely a statistical quirk, as larger GDP figures can make a country more appealing to foreign investors—for one thing, it can make a country’s debt burden look less daunting. It also has implications for eligibility for international aid and lending programs.
It’s finally happening: eBay is officially spinning PayPal off as a separate company. And it comes at a crucial time, just as the budding mobile-payments industry—which many see as the future of payments and commerce—is getting interesting.
While PayPal has very done well for itself—payment volume grew 29% from a year earlier in the June quarter to $55 billion—things are about to get more competitive.
Apple is about to enter the market with Apple Pay, a simple and well-designed system that lets iPhone owners buy things in person and in apps using their phones. Importantly, Apple Pay props up the existing payments infrastructure—including the major credit card companies that PayPal has been trying to get around.
Google, where ambitions have no limits, failed in its first few attempts to conquer payments, but has proven itself willing to spend many billions of dollars to achieve its goals. As some have suggested, perhaps Google will try to acquire Square or Stripe (a fast-growing payments processor for developers.)
There are certainly a lot of players and potential combinations chasing this market.
And with the mobile-payments market expected to more than double over the next few years—to more than $700 billion in transactions—PayPal just can’t sit still.
While it has grown tremendously in all aspects under eBay’s ownership, it now seems better off on its own. (That is, if it doesn’t get swallowed up by a Google or a legacy payments giant.)
Many see the PayPal product as one from a bygone era—cumbersome user interface, frustrating limitations, and generally lacking innovation. Under its new president, former American Express executive Dan Schulman—who also previously worked in the mobile industry—the company can let go of its legacy baggage and act like a disruptive startup again. Or at least it can try.
Who owns the DAX, Germany’s pre-eminent equity index?
Not many Germans, it turns out. According to fresh research from the Bundesbank, the share of domestic ownership of the index—which comprises the 30 largest public companies in traded in the equities markets—fell from 44.1% in 2005 to 36.3% in 2014. Meanwhile, the foreign ownership share rose from 55.9% to 63.7%.
The share of private household ownership, included under the category of domestic, fell from 14.4% to 12.9% over the same period. Likewise, the share owned by German institutional investors and investment funds also declined over the same period.
Interestingly, the Bundesbank notes while German households are apparently uninterested in the large, global companies that make up the DAX, they do have some appetite for equities. “Domestic households have a particular preference for the shares of smaller enterprises, which the Bundesbank economists believe might be partly explained by households’ bias towards local firms with which they are familiar, and for which they are even prepared to accept potentially inferior returns,” analysts from the bank wrote.
The local licensee of FedEx in Pakistan, Gerry’s Group, has terminated the services of Arjumand Hussain, whose activism to evict two politicians from a commercial airline made him a social media hero in the subcontinent.
On 15 September, angry passengers barred two Pakistani politicians from boarding a Pakistan International Airlines flight from Karachi to Islamabad after it became evident that they had held up the flight’s departure by 2.5 hours. A video of the event allegedly filmed by Hussain, who worked as General Manager, FedEx-Gerry’s Group, was posted online and subsequently went viral.
The clip was played on loop by television stations in India and Pakistan, and people across the subcontinent identified with Hussain’s rallying cry from the video: “we have taken this for 68 years and we will take it no more”. People in both countries are all too familiar with traffic jams and flights being held up for ministers and other so-called very important persons, or VIPs.
While the airline had said that the flight was delayed by two hours because of a technical error, the passengers onboard the flight learnt from crew members that the flight was being held for Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Rehman Malik and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s Ramesh Kumar Wakwani. Both were forced to leave the aircraft before it took off for Islamabad.
I don’t have evidence of political interference and obviously no one will come forward and accept it.
Hussian’s troubles started shortly after.
Speaking to Quartz from Karachi, Hussain said he was told on his return from Islamabad after that incident that the company was doing away with his position and he should resign. He worked as vice president for corporate development.
“I don’t have evidence of political interference and obviously no one will come forward and accept it. But they said it was a performance-related issue, which i’m sure is not the case as it was never a problem till that day,” Hussain said. He had been working at the company for a year by then.
The company has issued a clarification on its Facebook page saying the sacking was unrelated to politics. “Recently there has been flood of tweets and comments on Facebook backlashing Gerry’s Group in response to sacking of Mr. Arjumand Hussain, Former General Manager Fedex Gerry’s Group who played protagonist against VIP culture on PIA flight. We feel it is very important that we convey to people the other side of story.” The company says the decision was taken on merit.
Hussain’s supporters are now posting comments on Gerry’s Group’s Facebook post threatening to boycott the company.
This article is a part of Quartz India. For more, follow this link.
HONG KONG—While tens of thousands of students continue to paralyze Hong Kong’s financial and commercial districts for a third day to demand free elections, across Victoria harbor in Kowloon the pro-democracy movement is starting to look a little different. In Mong Kok, a dense working class neighborhood, demonstrators are older, quieter, and in some ways, a little more cynical.
“The politics here are so bad. That’s why we have to fight for democracy,” 78-year old Li Kon-wah tells Quartz. Li says Hong Kong’s top official, the chief executive CY Leung answers only to Beijing, a government that he remembers most for having ordered a violent crackdown on nonviolent democracy protesters in 1989. “I was so angry. I cried,” he says, after carefully taping a sign onto a nearby bus that reads, “Blood bath Tiananmen Massacre.”
Li Kon-wah points to a bus decorated with signs supporting Occupy and calling for chief executive CY Leung’s resignation on a bus in Kowloon, Hong Kong.Quartz
What started as a pro-democracy movement mainly among the city youth—sparked by student activists as well as another pro-democracy group, Occupy Hong Kong—is starting to capture a wider cross-section of the city’s population of seven million. The majority of these residents initially opposed Occupy’s strategy—to disrupt the city’s economy and force the government to withdraw electoral reforms that give Hong Kongers direct elections in 2017 but allows Beijing the ability to vet candidates for the city’s top office.
Now, news reports and footage of police clashing with students, as well as tear gassing or pepper spraying them, have brought more people into the streets. In Mong Kok, thousands of demonstrators, including students, retired local residents, and workers have overtaken Nathan Road, a main thoroughfare. They are decorating streets with chalk drawings of umbrellas—the latest symbol for the demonstrations—and plastering signs on a row of buses that had to be abandoned when drivers couldn’t move in crowds that descended on the street late Sunday.
Elderly demonstrators like Li mill around the area listening to speeches, handing out yellow ribbons and leaflets. Another retiree, Chan Kin-hoi, 76, wears a hat with a sign that reads, “Oppose the communist party, save Hong Kong.” Chan says: “I’m here because I support universal suffrage.” Local workers, like delivery drivers have volunteered to bring goods to demonstrators.
Young and middle-aged professionals are also joining the protests during work breaks or after work. Grace Fu, 22, who works at an office nearby, is under no illusion that the protesters’ demands will be met. Chief executive Leung said again today the government will not change its stance on how Hong Kong elections will be run, despite the spread of “illegal” protests.
But, says Fu, “Even if this [movement] doesn’t change anything, it’s good that people can now know what’s going on in Hong Kong. That would still be worth it.”
Protesters at a rally in Mongkok today.Reuters/Tyrone Siu
Other segments of society are joining, too. Teachers in at least 31 secondary schools are boycotting classes, and Hong Kong’s Professional Teachers Union (PTU)—80% of the city’s primary and secondary school teachers are members—has pledged its support to the movemet. Instead of teaching classes, teachers are holding “civic lessons” for students to learn about Hong Kong politics and activism, according to Fong King-lok, head of computer development at PTU.
And though many of Hong Kong’s construction workers, drivers, small shop owners and others are apolitical, at least one organized group of workers is participating—a development that labor observes say could eventually be similar to the support workers gave gave pro-democracy student activists in China in 1989. One of the city’s most influential trade groups, the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, has called on workers to strike and demonstrate at protest sites. Support from other unorganized workers has trickled in as well: 200 delivery workers at a Coca Cola plant have also gone on strike.
Chan Kin-hoi, 76, in Kowloon wears a sign on his shirt that says, “People rise up to defend Hong Kong, support Occupy, and student strikes.”Quartz
These workers may have even more reason to push for genuine direct elections than students, many of whom feel their economic and career prospects have been compromised by the current government. Collective bargaining for workers is weak—workers often have to accept poor terms and can be let go for striking.
“Organized workers as a group feel that they have as much at stake as anyone,” says Rick Glofcheski who teaches labor and employment law at Hong Kong University. “The thin blanket of protections workers are offered has to do with lack of accountability of the government in Hong Kong. The workers have a strong conviction about that.”
Activists have said they plan to keep protesting until Leung steps down; Leung himself says he expects the protests to last “quite a long period.”
By early evening today, more people had started streaming in to Nathan Road to support the demonstrators. A 63-year old woman who would only give her surname, Li, sat along a traffic barrier, chatting with her sister and other neighbors. Asked why she’s come, Li says: “It’s our responsibility as Hong Kongers. If we don’t come out today, when will we?”
