COVID-19 stories dominate tech-related coverage in HK media

Tech-related coverage has declined in Hong Kong, but COVID-19 stories have been on the rise in the past year, according to a ClearStory International report.

The inaugural “Tech Trend Report: Hong Kong” analysed tech trends between 1 May 2019 to 30 April 2020 across leading Hong Kong publications. Hong Kong was one of the few surveyed media markets that saw a decline (13%) in media tech-related coverage, down from 119,957 in 2019 to 104,482 in 2020.

However, some COVID-19-related topics saw a significant increase. For example, remote working, virtual events, and video conferencing increased by 1092%, 338%, and 159% respectively. The report also recorded large drops in topics such as robotics (down 35.5%), virtual reality (down 29.72%), and cybersecurity (down 29.52%). 

As for the most popular topics, eCommerce was the most popular tech trend this year in Hong Kong with 13,100 articles in total, or 12.5% of the total number of stories. It was followed by AI (11,900 articles, or 11.4%) and Internet of Things (10,000 articles, or 9.6%). 

“The effect (of the decline in media coverage) is significant as it has seen a drop in coverage across more than 20 tech topics out of the 33 we analysed. The drop in tech coverage is a concern, but it does reflect a rapidly changing media landscape and increased pressure on newsrooms due to a reduction of resources,” said James McCann, managing director of ClearStory International.

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