Labubu, a popular designer of art-toy characters produced by the Beijing-based company Pop Mart, has experienced an extraordinary surge in popularity and commercial success throughout 2024 and 2025. By mid-2025, the “Monsters” series, featuring Labubu, generated US$677 million in just six months, and international sales surged by 400%.

Abstract This paper examines the application of blockchain technology in green finance, with a particular focus on Hong Kong’s pioneering initiatives. It shows how blockchain’s key features—immutability, transparency, and traceability—address critical challenges such as greenwashing, fragmented data, and limited retail access. The analysis highlights Hong Kong’s world-first sovereign tokenised green bonds and innovative projects such […]

1. Introduction Hong Kong’s global reputation as an international finance and trade hub is now complemented by its aspiration to become a centre for innovation and entrepreneurship. In recent years, the city has undertaken significant efforts to develop its startup ecosystem, supported by policy initiatives, encouraging innovation in its world-class academic institutions, and realigning its […]

Trading has long been a cornerstone of Hong Kong’s economy, sustained by the city’s role as a bridge between the Chinese Mainland and the rest of the world. Any comprehensive discussion of Hong Kong’s economic development should address the evolution of its trading sector, and, by extension, the trade finance mechanisms that enable it. Trade […]

In retrospect, over the past five years, the global automobile industry has undergone dramatic changes in its first half, during which “energy defines the car” was the theme of competition, i.e. a race in battery technology and driving range.

Large language models are increasingly permeating core domains such as knowledge production, business analysis, legal consulting, and medical decision-making. A problem that was once often regarded as a mere technical flaw is rapidly becoming a new focal point in the global technology race: the “hallucination” of large language models—namely, the tendency of a model, when lacking any factual basis, to still produce highly “confident,” fluent, yet false answers.

In last week’s column, I did an in-depth analysis of the structural contradictions confronting Hong Kong’s electric vehicle (EV) charging market: acute scarcity of land and limitations in power capacity. Pursuing extensive growth by simply “piling up hardware” is decidedly ill-advised.

Electric vehicle (EV) charging technology is in a phase of rapid iterative development. Early alternating current (AC) slow charging is already on the way out, while direct current (DC) fast charging standards have become an entry-level feature.