Four Hours, Two Worlds. What Hong Kong and Singapore Teach Us About Entering the Asian Market.

By Sean Murphy, COO The Connector. Over the last few weeks I had the chance to attend both Hong Kong Fintech Week and the Singapore Fintech Festival. A short four hour flight connects the two cities, yet the difference between the two cities is striking. For Fintechs thinking about market expansion or building cross border corridors, the contrast teaches you more about Asia than any analyst report ever could.

Hong Kong remains the primary international gateway into China. Singapore is the most reliable launch point for global operators entering Asia outside China. Understanding the distinction is one of the most valuable lessons a go to market leader can internalise before entering the region.

Hong Kong sits beside mainland China and is tightly integrated into its financial system. On the conference floor this shows up immediately. The presence of enormous Chinese banks and state linked institutions creates a very specific type of atmosphere. It is serious, institutional, inward facing, and powered by domestic financial engines that are larger than many global markets combined.

You feel this most strongly in the payments environment. Mainland China runs on Alipay and WeChat Pay. Without them you are simply not part of the economy. Even in Hong Kong, the payments landscape is surprisingly fragmented for newcomers and visitors, which is unexpected for a city that positions itself as hyper modern. Some shops take Visa. Others take Mastercard. Others take neither. QR codes, local wallets, contactless cards, and sometimes cash compete with each other. As a visitor you often keep multiple cards and some cash in your pocket just to get through a day. It gives you a glimpse into a controlled system that has achieved incredible scale, but at the cost of openness.`

Although China has a huge domestic market, it is important not to overlook the scale of the opportunity across the rest of Southeast Asia. Countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia have large populations that have only recently begun moving from cash heavy, informal financial systems into digital ones. Indonesia has more than 275 million people. The Philippines has more than 115 million. Malaysia adds another 34 million. A significant share of these populations was previously unbanked or underbanked, and their financial ecosystems are digitising at remarkable speed. For global fintechs and go to market teams, this means the growth story in Asia is not only about China. It is also about three hundred million people in markets that are opening quickly, modernising fast, and increasingly accessible through Singapore. Singapore sits on the other end of the spectrum. While Hong Kong is a bridge into one very large market, Singapore is a hub for many. It connects Southeast Asia, the United States, Europe, and even Hong Kong. The city was built to be a global node rather than a local gateway, and the difference shows up everywhere.

A simple everyday example illustrates the contrast. In Hong Kong you are handed chopsticks and that is the default, which reflects how the system expects you to operate in a specific way. In Singapore you can eat with chopsticks, or a fork and knife, or your hands if you are in Little India. Choice is built into the culture. Adaptability is normal. The country is designed so outsiders can operate without friction. That mindset carries directly into the fintech ecosystem.

You notice it at the Singapore Fintech Festival. The European presence is far stronger than anything you see in Hong Kong. It is sometimes easier to meet someone who lives two hours from you in Europe only after both of you fly eighteen hours to Singapore. It is the natural meeting point for global financial operators. If Hong Kong is a controlled market, Singapore is a corridor.

This corridor mindset is not accidental. Singapore has invested for years in building a system that welcomes global players. The city does not simply host innovation. It exports it. A recent example is the creation of GFTN, the Global Finance and Technology Network, launched by MAS in 2024. The creation of GFTN shows how Singapore is beginning to take the learnings from its fintech ecosystem and translate them into structured programs that governments in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe are now engaging with. This is one of the clearest signs that Singapore is no longer just a regional hub. It is becoming an origin point for global financial innovation.

For go to market leaders, CEOs, and strategy teams looking at Asia, the takeaway is simple. Hong Kong and Singapore solve different problems. Hong Kong gives access to the Chinese financial universe, which is enormous but relatively closed. Singapore gives access to the rest of South Asia and access to multiple global companies. Choosing between them is not a question of preference. It is a question of what you are trying to achieve and which corridor your product needs.

For companies in Europe or the United States looking to enter Asia, Singapore is often the best starting point. For companies committed to operating inside the Chinese financial system, Hong Kong is the natural doorway. The four hour flight between the cities is short, but the strategic distance between them is huge. Understanding that gap is the first step in building a successful expansion strategy across Asia and Europe.