Hong Kong: Shared Hosting and the English China

Recently, Filip visited Hong Kong — the ‘English part of China’ — to understand the local shared-hosting market, cultural nuances, and a few practical lifehacks for doing business in the region.

Hong Kong is of the easiest gateways for entering the Chinese market. Likewise, when Chinese companies want to expand globally, their first steps often involve Hong Kong, where cultures blend, English is widely spoken, and business communication is accessible and efficient.

Hong Kong and Site.pro

The Digital Landscape of Hong Kong

Despite a population of around 7.5 million, Hong Kong’s shared-hosting market is very small. Only about 250 000 local domains are registered. Many businesses still choose international extensions such as .com, .asia or .cn, particularly those positioning themselves for entry into mainland China. Nevertheless, the total volume of domains remains modest.

High real-estate costs and expensive local developers create additional barriers for hosting providers. Victoria Peak — the most expensive real-estate location in the world — exemplifies this challenge, with prices exceeding 100,000 USD per square metre. The view may be spectacular, but the operating costs for tech companies certainly are not.

An interesting detail is that the leading registrars in Hong Kong rely on Site.pro software, making it the most prevalent B2B website-builder solution in local search and reseller ecosystems.

Domainity

Domain pricing in Hong Kong usually begins at around $20 and rise to about $80 or more, the first year, usually, being cheaper. The most popular domain type is .com.hk. The general .hk extension is often avoided because of its stricter verification requirements, which prompts many businesses to choose .net.hk, .com or other alternatives instead. Customer support is available in both Chinese and English, and operates 24/7.

Payment gateways

As an international hub situated between East and West, Hong Kong accommodates payment systems from both sides. Standard Western methods such as American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Stripe and PayPal are all commonly used. Chinese payment preferences, however, differ significantly, WeChat Pay and Alipay being a must-have.

Local Hong Kong payment solutions, including QR-based systems, add another layer. As a result, providing a hosting service here requires integrating a lot of payment gateways to meet customer expectations.

Website builders in Hong Kong

Site.pro holds the leading position in the B2B2C website-builder sector. In the B2C segment, global players like Shopify and Wix actively compete for Hong Kong users. The broader Asian market — especially mainland China — is vast and full of potential, but notoriously difficult for foreign companies to enter. Hong Kong offers a more accessible starting point before attempting expansion into China proper.

Cloud or On-Premises?

Both cloud and on-premises hosting are possible in Hong Kong, although on-premises options come with notable drawbacks. Data centres are expensive, and political tensions make hosting for Taiwan more complicated. Providing services for mainland China requires a special hosting licence, which is costly and time-consuming to obtain. Any company planning to launch services in Hong Kong must weigh these factors carefully.

Chinese Specificities

Communication habits differ significantly from Western norms. WeChat and WhatsApp are preferred for nearly all business conversations, while traditional email is used far less. Even when email is provided, addresses often appear unusual. It is common both for individuals and companies to use numeric addresses such as 634@mail.example
or 410@mail.example. In many cases, people may even ask you to call them by these numbers, and numerical nicknames are often used on WeChat.

Chinese: Simplified, not Simple

Chinese writing exists in two main versions: traditional and simplified. Simplified Chinese dominates in mainland China, whereas Hong Kong and Macau use a mixture of both. Spoken dialects are close, but the written forms can feel as distinct as separate languages.

Lifehacks

Final Thoughts

Hong Kong’s hosting market is small — less than one per cent the size of mainland China. However, it is still sizeable compared with many European countries. The region does not offer a vast number of shared-hosting opportunities, but it remains a strategic bridge between the Western business and China.