Author | Maika

Edit | Ann

"Grab enterprises, grab talents, and promote innovation." On August 23, in a government promotional video released by the Hong Kong S.A.R., Chief Executive John Lee summed up the Hong Kong government's determination to embrace science and technology innovation in nine words.

Hong Kong has long been regarded as one of the most open economies in the world. At present, in order to draw a blueprint for the industrial development of "new industrialization", the Hong Kong government is still showing considerable initiative and openness in attracting technology enterprises and improving the I&T ecosystem.

In the past few months, a number of star companies have "settled" in Hong Kong. According to a set of data in the announcement in the government affairs announcement, as of July 2024, the ITI has introduced more than 100 potential and representative key I&T enterprises, which will set up and expand their business in Hong Kong, with a total investment of over $52 billion with Hong Kong.

Among them, the influx of AI-related enterprises has provided an important impetus for Hong Kong's industrial transformation.

Just last month, Digital Domain, a top visual effects company born in Hollywood, announced that it plans to invest HK$200 million to set up an international innovation and research center at the Hong Kong Science Park. In the promotional video, Digital Domain CEO Xie An, as the first entrepreneur representative to appear on the camera, talked about the significance of this move: "We are equivalent to putting the soul and brain of a company in Hong Kong."

What makes Hong Kong attractive to Digital Domain? The answer may point to talent, technology, efficiency and other aspects.

It is foreseeable that Digital Domain will move the "most important" part of technology companies to Hong Kong, and will further leverage Hong Kong's geographical advantages and industrial agglomeration effect to attract talents, promote technological development, and achieve global business expansion.

Eventually, Digital Domain will become one of the core areas that connects AI-related industries and forms a win-win situation with Hong Kong.

1. With a large investment of 200 million, Digital Domain is ready to build a new "brain" in Hong Kong

Tai Po District, New Territories, Hong Kong, where the Hong Kong Science Park is located.

This is a science and technology innovation base built by the Hong Kong government at a cost of HK$15 billion, gathering talents, investors and star enterprises from all over the world to connect Hong Kong's science and technology innovation stories.

As the world's leading visual effects company, Digital Domain has established an international innovation and R&D center in Hong Kong Science Park, with two main objectives: one is to recruit and nurture professional talents, deploy technology patents and knowledge products, and the other is to further promote technology research and development and commercialization.

In order to achieve the planned goals of the International Innovation and R&D Centre, Digital Domain plans to invest a total of about HK$204 million by the end of 2029.

Technology has always been a tradition in Digital Domain. In the past 30 years, it has always adhered to the business strategy of emphasizing research and development, focusing on the deep cultivation of cutting-edge technology and the cultivation of professional talents.

This is actually in line with Hong Kong's idea of making efforts in science and technology innovation. For any city, the first step in developing emerging industries is often to leverage R&D resources. Only by taking the first step can we promote a series of strategic actions such as technological innovation and scenario landing.

The strong focus on innovative R&D is the foundation for Digital Domain's win-win partnership with Hong Kong Science Park and Hong Kong.

In terms of the specific implementation of the plan, Digital Domain's leading position in the industry and the strong market influence of technology products can naturally attract talent to join.

After years of development, Digital Domain's business scale and technology maturity have reached a high level, and its main business covers visual effects, virtual humans, visualization and many other fields, and it also has full strength in cutting-edge technologies such as real-time interaction and motion capture.

Coupled with the fact that Hong Kong is already a highland for high-quality talents, and that Hong Kong Science Park is adjacent to Chinese University of Hong Kong, it also attaches great importance to talent cultivation, and it is not difficult for Digital Domain's international innovation and R&D center to expand its technical talent team.

In the 14th Five-Year Plan, Hong Kong has been identified as one of the "Eight Centres", an international innovation and technology hub and an East-meets-West centre for cultural and artistic exchange, and will play an important role in "bringing in and going out".

In order to "compete for talents", Hong Kong has also launched the "Top Talent Pass Scheme" to attract high-end talents by relaxing the threshold for settlement. According to recently released data, Hong Kong has exceeded its target of 35,000 talents.

By setting up an international innovation and R&D centre in Hong Kong Science Park, Digital Domain will be able to bring together professionals from the Greater Bay Area and around the world.

Building on this, Digital Domain can also expand the local talent pool and attract top global talent through a series of talent development programmes, such as the ongoing I&T Leaders of Tomorrow programme.

In terms of technological breakthroughs and patent portfolio, Digital Domain has the opportunity to establish collaborative relationships with Hong Kong's leading academic institutions, industry experts and innovators to jointly drive technological innovation.

With the help of the technology accumulated in the past, Digital Domain can allow more technological breakthroughs and talent to take place in the land of Hong Kong.

2. With the power of an ecosystem and a city, we will escort the digital domain

Hong Kong Science Park is not only a physical space, but also a world-leading technology and innovation ecosystem. According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2024, Hong Kong ranks first in Asia and third in the world in terms of emerging startup ecosystems.

As a technology innovation ecosystem, Hong Kong Science Park can provide enterprises with abundant resources, including comprehensive services such as research, development, commercialisation and education and training. In addition to artificial intelligence and robotics, the Science Park is also home to a large number of companies from the three major fields of biomedicine, smart city, and financial technology.

More importantly, Science Park acts as a bridge between technology companies in various fields, providing opportunities for business connections between different technology industries.

As of May 2023, there are more than 1,100 technology enterprises in the Science Park and InnoCentre, of which 81% are local enterprises, 9% are Mainland and Taiwan enterprises, and 10% are overseas enterprises.

Through the ecosystem, Digital Domain will link external resources more efficiently, complement each other's advantages with partners, and achieve the effect of 1+1>2.

Obviously, as a company that provides technology solutions, Digital Domain must solidify its position as the preferred technology supplier for related enterprises through the intensive integration of technology and industry in the ecosystem.

Photo: Digital Domain's Olympic TVC with its participation in the production of visual effects

For partners in the ecosystem, Digital Domain not only has the most cutting-edge technology, but also has a lot of experience in the development of landing products. When businesses are struggling with the difficulty of commercializing their products, Digital Domain can help.

On this basis, Digital Domain's business scale and market expansion territory will be further expanded.

On a deeper level, Xie believes that the company, the Hong Kong Science Park and the Hong Kong government form a community.

He made it clear that the strong support of the Hong Kong government and the abundant resources of Science Park will help Digital Domain break into one of the world's largest markets and incubate the best business model with the most powerful technology and talent.

From a long-term perspective, whether from the layout of the Greater Bay Area Innovation and Technology Corridor or from a global perspective, Hong Kong is the "central axis" for multinational companies to deploy a larger market and achieve large-scale development.

It can be said that by landing in Hong Kong and settling in Science Park, Digital Domain has gained the blessing of an ecosystem and the "escort" of a city.

3. How can Digital Domain and Hong Kong grow together in the wave of AI commercialization?

"When I was dealing with officials in Hong Kong, they knew exactly what the land needed." When referring to Hong Kong's business environment, Xie An also mentioned it in the promotional video.

At present, the main development goal of the Hong Kong government is to encourage the commercial application of the industry.

Looking at China, not only Hong Kong, but most first-tier cities are sparing no effort to attract AI companies to settle down and talents to take root, hoping that commercial projects will be effective as soon as possible.

In other words, after completing the talent and R&D layout, the next step for Digital Domain is to press the acceleration button for the commercialization of Hong Kong's AI-related industries.

Nowadays, the upgrading and transformation of many industries are extremely dependent on the empowerment of AI-related technologies.

Hong Kong is an important production base for the film industry, known as the "Hollywood of the East", but in recent years, the influence of Hong Kong films as a cultural phenomenon has gradually weakened, and practitioners hope that AI technologies such as visual effects and virtual humans will help Hong Kong films get back on the upward track.

Professor Sun Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of Hong Kong, has said, "Artificial intelligence has revolutionized the film and entertainment industry, innovating film production, visual effects and animation. Digital Domain is proof of this. ”

In other words, Digital Domain's state-of-the-art visual effects technology and top-notch Hollywood film production system can help Hong Kong films create greater commercial value.

In fact, many heavyweights in the global film market have Digital Domain's visual effects team.

In collaboration with Marvel's "Avengers" series, its self-developed software Masquerade has been iterated to support fully automated tagging and tracking, making it possible to create a more realistic Thanos in extreme lighting conditions.

In the film "Terminator: Dark Fate", he created the character's head replacement and digital double in the factory battle between Grace and the high-level terminator "Rev-9", respectively.

In addition, VFX technology can also be used in the TV series, commercials, and game industries to improve production efficiency, save production costs, and create higher quality works.

In addition to promoting the innovation and upgrading of Hong Kong's entertainment industry, Digital Domain can also empower more industries with technology, including banking, education, elderly services and tourism, completing a two-way rush between "technology" and "industrial upgrading needs".

In these industries, Digital Domain's virtual human technology will come in handy frequently. For example, it plans to develop advanced AI-driven virtual assistants that can interact naturally and in a complex way to enhance the user experience in service-oriented environments.

From the characters it participated in the development, such as the virtual Teresa Teng, the virtual Martin · Luther King, and the "Thanos" in the "Avengers" series, it can be seen that Digital Domain has the ability to produce photorealistic, fully real-time digital characters that support emotional interaction, and the competition barrier is strong.

There are a lot of AI-powered virtual assistants on the market, but Digital Domain can be driven by real-time intelligence, creating AI virtual assistants that are more realistic, and it can even generate voice and movement to interact with users in real time.

With the establishment of Digital Domain's international innovation and R&D center in Hong Kong, it is expected to improve the situation that it is difficult to implement technological achievements in Hong Kong's related industries and promote commercialization projects.

Digital Domain will help Hong Kong complete the "puzzle" of capabilities from R&D, technological innovation to application implementation, and take a step towards becoming a global business hub for artificial intelligence and virtual human technology.

This article is from Xinzhi self-media and does not represent the views and positions of Business Xinzhi.If there is any suspicion of infringement, please contact the administrator of the Business News Platform.Contact: system@shangyexinzhi.com