From weather websites to data services, Kelvin Woo shared about his entrepreneurship and helping other businesses
Kelvin Woo still remembers when the internet first came into his life. “Around 1990, my parents bought me [my first] computer and in 1995, we had the internet,” says Woo, who was a secondary school student at the time. By 1997, he was already building websites based on his hobbies and interests, which included auto sports and meteorology.
Launching a website with a weather forecast as one of his first projects, Woo recalls, “There wasn’t much traffic during the off-peak season, but whenever a typhoon was coming, our traffic would become so huge that our service provider couldn’t provide the bandwidth.”
To keep the site up and running, Woo and his business partner, Johnny Luk, needed to build their own servers and infrastructure and rent a server rack from a data centre. The duo also raised funds by selling advertising, as well as storage space, domains and registrations on their server.
The internet evolution
“This is how our business started—purely from our own needs and interests,” says Woo, co-founder of Speedy Group, one of Hong Kong’s largest integrated IT service operators. The company will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year, having provided IT services to more than 500 schools and over 20,000 SMEs.
Today, Speedy Group’s core business services include cloud computing, website and domain registrations, plus IT services and support for local schools and public institutions. With ever-increasing demands on its servers, it became one of the first companies of the Data Technology Hub (DT Hub) in the Tseung Kwan O InnoPark when it was established in 2021.
“DT Hub’s world-class advanced supporting facilities are very suitable for [Speedy Group’s] business development,” says Woo. “For instance, we need to ensure that there is a stable power supply, 24 hours a day, to support the operation of our server—the dual power supply system and submarine cables of DT Hub can do just that.”
The 24-hour support has helped Speedy Group to provide round the clock services to over 500 schools and other corporations, including cloud servicing to help detect any IT issues early, allowing staff to focus and remain efficient in their role. Most detected problems can be fixed remotely, only 10 to 20 per cent of cases will require Speedy Group staff on-site.
Contributing to a smart city
Commissioned by the HKSAR government in 2016 and operated by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), the Data Technology Hub (DT Hub) was built to help Hong Kong evolve into the city’s “new industrialisation” vision. Its location next to the Advanced Manufacturing Centre in Tseung Kwan O’s InnoPark also creates plenty of opportunities for collaboration.
“HKSTP is also a good base for different IT service providers and partners to cooperate on new projects or solutions,” Woo says. “Speedy Group is constantly innovating, developing and applying new technologies such as AI and big data so we can capture even more new opportunities.
“In the next 20 years, I hope to continue to provide first-class cloud, technology and data services to support the social development of Hong Kong.”