Introduction

Banana Portal is a platform with integrated service guides, matching and evaluation, which is entirely free of charge and the first of its kind in Hong Kong. Our vision is to create an OpenRice-like platform for freelance service seekers and providers. We set our goals in three aspects. First, we aim to eliminate undesirable platforms which impede the flow of information in the market. Second, we strive to provide transparent matching service to facilitate communication and to protect the interests of users. Last but not least, we seek to promote digital marketing to help freelancers and customers grow their business, expand the customer base, and increase revenue. With Banana Portal, users can browse, search, and contact professional consultants. The process is easy and transparent. It also provides evaluation, matching, and data analysis systems for customers to know more about the consultants.

Original Intention

Our team is made up of freelancers from different fields. Our motivation to found Banana Portal comes from frustration by the situation in Hong Kong that many service platforms are exploiting both consumers and freelancers. It tremendously hinders the development of freelancers, while excessive agency fees are charged to consumers.

What is/are the biggest challenge(s) you have ever faced?

When it comes to starting a business, as the old saying goes, “thinking is easy, acting is difficult”. We have members, either poached by our competitor or recruited by an investment bank, who ended up quitting the team. When having doubts or meeting challenges, our team always recall what has brought us together at the very beginning. It brings us the courage to move on.

Goals for the coming year

In the coming year, the team will put more efforts to provide freelancers with an array of services for protecting their interests and value enhancement. These include the introduction of matching centres, dispute resolution methods, automatically generated contracts, scheduled payments, etc. In addition, we will expand the service categories by 30% before December 2019.

For medium- and long-term endeavours, Banana Portal hopes to expand its business to other regions, such as Macau, Taiwan, Japan, etc.