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Matt Haldane

Artificial intelligence is expected to outshine Web3 at this year’s FinTech Week, which kicks off at the end of the month, as organisers InvestHK and Finoverse tease a slate of mainland Chinese exhibitors looking to ride the generative AI wave.
“[There is] a huge increase in mainland Chinese companies’ representation at this year’s event … [and a] big, big focus on AI and advanced technologies,” said Anthony Sar, founder and CEO of Finoverse. “AI, especially driven a lot by China tech, is one of the prominent trends that’s very different.”
Two years ago, Hong Kong used FinTech Week to focus on a regulatory overhaul meant to turn the city into a virtual asset hub. One of the headlining speakers was FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried, who is now serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud.
Since then, multiple challenges have emerged, including a cryptocurrency market downturn – partially triggered by the 2022 collapse of FTX – major frauds in Hong Kong, and a regulatory regime for exchanges that some have criticised as too strict to stimulate business activity. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT has led to AI projects sucking up much of the technology industry’s attention.

FinTech Week is adapting to the times. The focus has turned towards Hong Kong’s role as a “connector” between international business and China, the world’s second-largest AI market behind the US. This year’s conference, which runs from October 28 to November 1, will bring some participants across the border to Shenzhen to visit companies in China’s southern technology hub, including the offices of SenseTime, Tencent Holdings and ByteDance.
Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Post owner Alibaba Group Holding, is sponsoring the event for the first time this year, and CEO Eric Jing is one of the high-profile speakers. Representatives from Tencent, Xiaomi, JD.com and SenseTime will also be there.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about connecting to international markets. Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and so on,” said King Leung, global head of financial services, fintech and sustainability at InvestHK, the Hong Kong government’s investment promotion arm. “The one thing that I think we have to appreciate is that Hong Kong is just a lot of regional, international headquarters of different financial institutions.”
This presents an opportunity for AI firms that come to the city to pitch a proof of concept to these institutions and then offer to set up similar solutions in other markets, according to Leung.
As Hong Kong seeks to maintain its status as Asia’s finance hub, AI has proven to have commercial applicability in a way blockchain has not. Many blockchain projects in financial institutions have either fizzled out or stagnated. Meanwhile, companies are racing to integrate generative AI into their services by helping with things such as regulatory compliance and investment advice.
The organisers say there is no doubt that a lot of attention has shifted to AI, but Web3 remains a key part of the show. “We want to highlight the fact that there’s a big presence of Chinese companies, but it’s not limited to that,” Sar said.

FinTech Week’s shine for Web3 players has not worn off yet. There are more speakers at this year’s event with a background in Web3 than in AI. Most of the roughly 130 speakers come from a traditional finance background.
The organisers argued that it will still take time for Web3 to take off, noting that many of the major players are still building out infrastructure.
“Over the past two years, since the policy announcement, we have seen mid-to-high double-digit growth in this segment,” Leung said. “These are world-class companies, but because they are more like infrastructure people, that’s why they are not able to attract as much attention.”
Leung said a 1996 quote from Bill Gates illustrates what is happening in Web3: “People often overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in 10.”
As the FinTech Week organisers look ahead to next year, when the event will celebrate its tenth anniversary, they are also thinking about how the show’s priorities reflect Hong Kong’s role as a place to experiment. In the future, the event may not be about blockchain or AI, but whatever is next.
“What we are seeing now is very, very clear, [which] is that Hong Kong will become the sort of macro sandbox for frontier technologies,” Leung said. “FinTech Week can potentially become so much like the incubation platform for a lot of these global frontier technologies firms to congregate in Hong Kong, sell to the financial services sector, then grow to other parts of the world.”

Major FinTech Week speakers and areas of focus
Speaker
Organisation
Role
Areas of focus
Ashutosh Goel
xalts
Founder, CEO
Web3
Chan Tak Lam Norman
Institute of Web3.0 Hong Kong
Founding chairman
Web3
David E. Rutter
R3
Co-founder, CEO
Web3
Dominic Williams
Dfinity Foundation
Founder, Chief scientist
Web3
Evan Auyang
Animoca Brands
President
Web3
Gary Liu
Terminal 3
Co-founder, CEO
Web3
Isabel SHI
BITRACE
Co-founder, CEO
Web3
John Cahill
Galaxy Digital
COO
Web3
Laura Loh
Temasek
Director, Investment (Blockchain)
Web3
Livio Weng
HashKey Exchange
CEO
Web3
Lily Liu
Solana Foundation
President
Web3
Lucy Gazmararian
Token Bay Capital
Founder, managing partner
Web3
Makoto Takemiya
Soramitsu
CEO
Web3
Marcel Robert Harmann
THORWallet & CVA
Founder of THORWallet / Crypto Valley Association board member
Web3
Mark Blick
Diginex
CEO
Web3
Max Rebol
PolkaPort East
Co-founder
Web3
Naveen Mallela
JP Morgan Chase Bank
Global head of Coin Systems at Onyx
Web3
Sergey Nazarov
Chainlink
Co-founder, CEO
Web3
Stefan Rust
Truflation
Founder, CEO
Web3
Thibault Perréard
PolkaPort East
Co-founder
Web3
Tom Farley
Bullish
CEO
Web3
Tracy Zhang
Followin
Co-founde, CMO
Web3
Vivien Wong
HashKey Capital Limited
Partner
Web3
Zhang Xiaojun
Huawei Cloud Computing Technologies
Huawei Cloud CTO, Huawei Blockchain CSO
Web3
Teddy Liu
Jindong Coinlink Technology
CEO
China tech, Web3
Alain Lam
Xiaomi
CFO
China tech
Charles Song
Linklogis
Founder, chairman, CEO
China Tech
Eric Jing
Ant Group
Chairman & CEO
China tech
Forest Lin
Tencent
Head of financial technology
China tech
Henry Ma
WeBank
CIO
China tech
Jennifer Tan
Ant Group
EVP, strategy development and government affairs
China tech
Dai Wenyuan
4Paradigm
Founder, CEO
China tech, artificial intelligence
Zhu Guang
Du Xiaoman Technology
CEO
China tech, artificial intelligence
Jean-Philippe Schepens van Thiel
AxonJay
Founder, CEO
Artificial intelligence
Xu Bing
SenseTime
Co-founder
Artificial intelligence
Esther Wong
3Cap Investment
Founder
Artificial intelligence
Aliya Grig
Kosmos Foundation
Founder, CEO
Artificial intelligence



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AI replaces Web3 as hot key word in Hong Kong’s FinTech Week

Signage at Hong Kong FinTech Week 2021 at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. As hype around cryptocurrencies and blockchain fades, the show’s organisers see AI tech from the mainland taking centre stage. Photo: Shutterstock

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried speaking remotely at Hong Kong FinTech Week on October 31, 2022. 31OCT22 SCMP/ Matt Haldane

Eddie Yue (middle), the chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, looks at an e-wallet containing 700 yuan of the Chinese digital currency e-CNY at FinTech Week in Hong Kong, November 2, 2023. Photo: Matt Haldane

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Alibaba Group Holding’s global headquarters in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province. Photo: Handout

Alibaba Cloud’s resources and capabilities were on display at Apsara Conference held in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, from September 19 to 21, 2024. Photo: Xinhua

Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma. Photo: Shutterstock

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Zhu Guangyao, China’s former vice-minister of finance, speaks at a press conference at the G20 Media Center in Hangzhou on September 2, 2016. Photo: SCMP / Simon Song

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Cryptocurrency automated teller machines, operated by Coinhero, seen in Hong Kong on August 5, 2024. Photo: Bloomberg

Mainland China maintains a blanket ban on the trading and mining of cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, because the government regards them as a source of financial risk. Photo: Shutterstock

As Chinese AI and GPU demand heats up, a Hong Kong data centre turns to liquid cooling

Server racks featuring the new direct-to-chip liquid cooling solution at Global Switch’s Hong Kong facility in Tseung Kwan O on September 12, 2024. Photo: Global Switch

Global Switch’s Hong Kong data centre in Tseung Kwan O on November 15, 2017. Photo: Global Switch

The technical area of Global Switch’s Hong Kong data centre, with power distribution cabinets along the walls. Photo: Global Switch

Alibaba’s DingTalk launches new service bundled with AI features to boost productivity

DingTalk’s new paid service reflects how China’s Big Tech firms are stepping up the roll-out of commercial generative artificial intelligence products. Photo: Shutterstock

The headquarters of Alibaba Group Holding’s DingTalk platform in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

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Two years after showcasing Hong Kong’s crypto pivot, FinTech Week organisers say the event can serve as an incubation platform for frontier technologies


Two years after showcasing Hong Kong’s crypto pivot, FinTech Week organisers say the event can serve as an incubation platform for frontier technologies.


AI replaces Web3 as hot key word in Hong Kong’s FinTech Week

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Two years after showcasing Hong Kong’s crypto pivot, FinTech Week organisers say the event can serve as an incubation platform for frontier technologies

Two years after showcasing Hong Kong’s crypto pivot, FinTech Week organisers say the event can serve as an incubation platform for frontier technologies