HONG KONG, Jan. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- HK Voice Media Limited today announced the launch of www.hk-voice.com in February, an online platform full of consumer reviews based from an extensive directory of companies.
The hub of Asia, an east meets west culture, a rich melting pot of tourists, locals and thirsty entrepreneurs collectively form this International city. Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated areas of the world with its eclectic architecture of old and new, its phenomenal vertical skyline standing amidst a natural harbour with one of the world's best developed public transport system, what could this fantastic city be missing? How will one ever know how to take advantage or locate all the hidden treasures that have been squeezed into this glistening treasure trove in Asia?
Take for instance the dining scene, the people of Hong Kong are discerning diners, their taste buds being most influential and contributing to the evolution of new culinary hotspots popping up every few weeks. So they have taste, they have experience, most of all a voice that can be influential, so why not speak up and share it?
To be launched in February 2013 by HK Voice Media Limited, www.hk-voice.com allows people in Hong Kong to voice and share their experience of any business or service throughout Hong Kong from locating the most authentic coffee shop in town, where to get a budget but quality suit made, which beauty spa in Central offers the most relaxing reflexology massage, to which bar to grab the city's most delectable molecular earl grey martini - without of course forgoing the seducing city view at night. Be prepared for a new powerful all in one social network/ integrated search engine, in essence run by an online community empowering Hong Kong people to voice and share their experiences, is about to roll out…
User friendly
The user is able to comfortably switch from either English or Chinese formats. A search filter function enables easy and relevant access to the business or service you are looking for split by; category, sub-category, area, and district. The top menu bar lists 12 categories, with further sub-categories via drop down menus.
A Main feature box includes featured articles of businesses, clicking through will lead to the full article piece. This box will also showcase both company specific articles and internal promotions.
The User
A Top 5 reviewer's box will encourage users to share their experiences. Established, loyal and trusted reviewers are rewarded with an "Elite" status badge. These users are regarded as the most trusted and respected reviewers.
As an incentive, reviewers get the chance to win prizes for 'Review of the week and Review of the month'. It occupies prominent space on the homepage and to become Review of the week, each review can be marked with green helpful arrows awarded by other members. Each week, the review with the most green helpful arrows from the past 7 days wins review of the week. Each member can only vote for one specific review once.
Prizes range from HKD$100 Starbucks cards to a pair of cinema tickets. For the "Review of the month" prize, the best review of the weeks within that month compete, again most green helpful votes can win prizes such as Beats headphones or an iPad Mini. No other review site in Hong Kong has this type of reward system.
There is a further emphasis on engaging with the social community where offline events will be arranged and top reviewers are invited for free.
In short, reviewers will want to write good quality reviews and the idea is for the snowball effect for members to encourage their friends to sign up to HK Voice and vote for them. Other reviewers will compete to try and win, essentially encouraging a community that gets rewarded for writing reviews and sharing their experiences.
Each user is entitled to their own profile page with their own profile photo, a bio, a library of their reviews, the number of helpful votes they've received and what star status they are. Members may also private message each other. HK Voice aims to combine practicality within its social media feature.
Reviewers gain more stars for contributing more. Each reviewer will start with 1 star, 5 stars being the maximum, which is given once the user has written over 500 reviews.
Businesses and Service Providers
HK Voice will be as equally important to businesses/service providers as it is for consumers. This platform enables the opportunity to not only enhance the company reputation but to leverage off the active online community and engage with their existing and potential consumers.
Business owners will also encourage their customers to leave reviews to organically rank higher than their competitors and enhance their reputation, thus bringing more new customers.
There are 3 levels of business accounts:
Gold listing -- Edit page functions with features including; adding up to 4 images, company information such as contact details, company profile, promotional area (latest news or promotional offers), video upload area and the main feature specifically for gold users; the ability to respond directly to user reviews.
Silver listing -- businesses can edit their page with features including; add a corporate logo, company information and company profile.
Basic listing is complimentary and business owners do not have an account. Details are amended by contacting HK Voice.
Businesses may also gain additional exposure with display advertising. They can also purchase the Highlighted Businesses section on the homepage to heighten exposure.
About HK Voice
The brains behind HK Voice developed their idea for the very reason of Hong Kong being such a fast paced energetic city advanced in most ways, yet it did not have a simple clean cut business directory system with trusted community reviews. Since Hong Kong has one of the highest internet penetration rates within the region with many people researching online and relying on reviews before making purchases, it became the most obvious thing to do.
Grounded with a heavy backbone foundation of having worked at Yellow Pages combined with extensive knowledge and experience in designing and developing websites, along with advertising and social media marketing solutions for a living, HK Voice proved not only to be necessary but a winning solution.
The business objective was apparent from the beginning - how the platform would be run by the members, the network that businesses could benefit from as well as providing them with an advertising platform that would actually pay off. "At the end of the day, the consumer is always right. All we've done is built this much needed platform to connect real people with real reviews to local businesses and services, allowing the consumers of HK, the freedom of speech to voice and share their experiences and opinions".
With Hong Kong's crowd being no less savvy when it comes to technology, the next obvious step is to launch the mobile app version, which is currently being developed for a target release of later this Spring.
For any PR or media related enquiries, please contact:
Leon Lee
Tel: +852-6299-8565 / +852-3588-1782
Fax: +852-3010-7681
Email: press@hk-voice.com
