Small change kiosk coming to town

Two Hong Kong students who started a coin collection business for small change plan to open a kiosk in Macau to serve the local population.

In the two SARs, small change under 1 Hong Kong dollar or 1 pataca – namely the 10, 20 and 50 cent pieces – can be difficult to spend as many businesses refuse to accept the coins.

Students Adam Lau and Eddie Rong started their Heycoins business in 2016, with the view to converting unwanted coins into electronic currency. They have set up several permanent kiosks for converting coins on their Tap & Go wallet, or into Heycoins credit to purchase gift coupons or make charitable donations online.

Citing the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that there is approximately HKD6.7 billion worth of small coins in the neighboring SAR.

The company has thus far converted more than HKD7.6 million worth of small coins, serving more than 30,000 people in Hong Kong. By the end of the year, they aim to have 50 machines installed across the city.

Now, they are expanding into Macau, as well as several other jurisdictions in Asia – mostly notably, Singapore.

“We were contacted by Macau residents via our social media, asking if we would go there,” Lau told the SCMP. “Macau is a similar market and there is clearly a demand for our service. Our kiosk there accepts both Hong Kong dollars and Macau patacas.”

The company has already won a series of innovation awards, including first-prize from the Alibaba Cloud-SUSS Entrepreneurship Programme, partly run by the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

“I don’t want to say if we’ve made it yet – we’re going through a process,” said Lau when asked by the SCMP about his successful enterprise. “We’re going to try to expand more and see how it goes.”