Giving Her All Without Regrets
At HKTVmall’s logistics center, boxes of merchandise move seamlessly along conveyor belts, sorted by a fully automated system before being loaded onto delivery trucks. The e-commerce platform’s success might make it easy to forget that the company began as a broadband provider and multimedia production company. These three industries require vastly different expertise, and though Jelly Zhou has remained with the company throughout its evolution, she’s essentially changed careers multiple times. Each transformation meant starting from scratch, but Zhou, now heading HKTVmall, explains that despite working in fields unrelated to her academic background, she’s consistently embodied the “all-in” spirit she cultivated at the School of Journalism and Communication.
As one of the first mainland Chinese students in CUHK’s School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai-born Zhou recalls her first required course, “Mass Media and Society,” with a laugh. “It was a tremendous shock,” she says. Unable to understand Cantonese, unfamiliar with Hong Kong culture, and completely unaware of local current affairs, she struggled with a course that demanded extensive analysis of Hong Kong news and cultural phenomena. She describes the difficulty as “extremely challenging” multiple times. The different writing conventions between mainland China and Hong Kong nearly caused a breakdown during her practicum with the School’s publication U-Beat Magazine. “My first article was terrible. I’d never received such criticism before and almost hid away to cry.”
“I realized I needed to work ten or twenty times harder than local Hong Kong students to excel academically. But this experience pushed me to work harder and accelerated my understanding of Hong Kong society.” Her now-fluent Cantonese stands as testament to her determination. “This experience proved invaluable. Later, whenever I faced challenges in further studies or work, I knew that with perseverance, no obstacle was insurmountable. At the School of Journalism, I learned self-reliance and diligence, which enabled me to achieve breakthroughs.”
These breakthroughs have paralleled her company’s evolution. After graduation, she joined City Telecom, staying on as the company transformed from a broadband provider to a multimedia production company and finally to an e-commerce platform. Each transition was essentially starting over, but she faced these challenges head-on. From her belief that Hong Kong deserved “a high-quality fiber optic network” to her vision of “Hong Kong’s own online shopping platform,” she has consistently sought to create more choices for local residents. “That’s something I find deeply satisfying,” she notes.
When discussing Hong Kong’s e-commerce future, Zhou speaks with evident passion. She believes this enthusiasm is characteristic of journalism school graduates: “We approach everything with tremendous dedication and aspire to contribute meaningfully to society. That’s something I’ve observed consistently among my peers.”
Profile:
Jelly Zhou graduated from the School of Journalism and Communication at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003 before joining City Telecom. Since 2020, she has served as CEO (Hong Kong) of Hong Kong Technology Venture Company Limited, overseeing the company’s e-commerce operations throughout the Hong Kong region.
