OpenRice Partners with Equinix and HKBN to Fuel Post-Pandemic Business Growth and Footprint Expansion

Hong Kong – July 21, 2022 – OpenRice, Hong Kong’s most popular dining platform, collaborates with Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world’s digital infrastructure company™, and HKBN Enterprise Solutions (HKBN), one of the fastest growing leading integrated telecom and technology solutions providers headquartered in Hong Kong, to further enhance infrastructure for its all-encompassing online-to-offline (O2O) foodtech services platform. Such collaboration allows OpenRice to further support the food and beverage (F&B) industry in Hong Kong as restaurants continue to realize the increasing importance of delivering a seamless O2O experience for consumers to ride the post-pandemic growth wave.

Equinix’s global footprint and robust ecosystem, along with HKBN’s integrated digital solutions and connectivity services, paves the way for OpenRice’s Booking Service to further expand into other Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets beyond Hong Kong, including Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Japan. This collaboration supports F&B companies to grow their business by offering seamless and enjoyable O2O dining experiences to their customers.    

“We are pleased to have Equinix and HKBN supporting our digital transformation and business expansion journey. They provide us with a robust digital infrastructure to architect digital solutions that work across our extensive portfolio of services and user base in Hong Kong and the wider APAC region. In the new era of dining, it’s critical for us to adopt these future-proof digital infrastructures and continuously upgrade to support our rapidly expanding services and offerings, so that we can continue raising the bar in providing dining experiences for consumers,” says Joe Yau, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer at OpenRice. 

Almira Chan, Co-Owner and Chief Strategy Officer at HKBN Group, shares the value of this collaboration, “Creating business values through multiple wins is core at HKBN. We strive to work with partners and like-minded organizations, such as Equinix, to drive digital innovation for customers like OpenRice. With Equinix’s award-winning reputation, sweeping global presence, and rich ecosystem, we are confident that this collaboration will help OpenRice strengthen its technical capabilities and business agility as well as enhance its customer experiences when serving the larger Asia market of collaborators, making them the ideal partner to bring customers next-level solutions.”

Larry Tam, Managing Director, Equinix Hong Kong comments, “The online behavior of consumers has shifted due to the pandemic. Businesses of all industries need to embrace a digital-first approach that closes performance gaps, accelerates returns and supports the new way of operations. We are excited to champion far-sighted digital leaders like OpenRice to fast-track their digital transformation journey to prepare for the opportunities ahead in the post-pandemic era. We are also proud to collaborate with Hong Kong’s leading telecoms and technology solution provider HKBN, and its powerful broadband network to deliver greater value.”

Highlights / Key Facts:

• OpenRice primarily operates as an all-in-one dining platform, driving O2O foot traffic to restaurants. The company is pioneering innovative F&B services to cater to customer needs and behavioral changes. Its digital-first strategy has been critical to assist the industry in dealing with challenges brought about by changing pandemic restrictions and disruptions. To address evolving customer needs, OpenRice continuously launches new and enhanced service features, including pay-at-table with loyalty earn & burn, connects restaurant and partner memberships via APIs, voucher services, takeaway services, as well as table reservations with set menus, and more.
   
• With key travel destinations gradually opening up for tourists, OpenRice also plans to introduce its all-in-one platform in new geographical locations in Asia-Pacific, including Singapore, Thailand and Japan. As they grow across the region, OpenRice also strives to bring its new platform capabilities to diners and F&B operators in new markets, introducing them to digital services that enhance dining experiences and streamline operations.
   
• As a result, OpenRice sought a more robust digital infrastructure to serve its user group of 7.5 million active users across Asia-Pacific and 500,000 restaurants listed on its platform—helping to supply real-time visibility into restaurant operations and bounce back from pandemic slumps. For F&B operators, this means providing up-to-the-minute data on orders, inventory, booking timeslots and confirmations, so they can accurately and effectively manage services. For diners, this means 24/7 platform access to make advanced bookings at their convenience and the most up-to-date restaurant information.
   
• In order to support evolving customer demand, OpenRice migrated its IT system to an Equinix International Business Exchange^TM (IBX^®) in Hong Kong and leveraged Equinix Internet Exchange^TM to privately, directly and securely connect with HKBN. The deployment allows OpenRice to build a more resilient digital infrastructure for its one-stop merchant network system.
   
• Equinix Internet Exchange is the largest global peering solution available across more than 35 markets. It allows networks, including internet services providers (ISPs), content vendors and enterprises to exchange Internet traffic easily and effectively. For OpenRice, this means support to handle traffic on its platform during peak and off-peak dining periods simultaneously across the different Asia-Pacific markets they operate in. With more options to route traffic in times of network congestion, incidents, or outages, OpenRice is able to provide a consistent platform experience for diners at any time.
   
• Trusted by over 10,000 global customers, including 3,000+ cloud and IT providers and 2,000+ network providers, Equinix provides OpenRice with the ability to connect with partners, service providers and customers across industries and regions through its rich ecosystem on Platform Equinix^â. OpenRice can select from a wide range of vendors, top-tier providers, regional specialists and innovators to deliver new or enhanced capabilities on their platform, such as expanding payment solutions to customers to ensure they can pivot and keep at pace with ever-changing forms of digital payments. 

Additional Resources

• Equinix’s Hong Kong Data Centers [website]
• Equinix Internet Exchange^TM [website]
• Equinix’s Colocation Services and Solutions [Website]
• Platform Equinix^® [website]

About Equinix 
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world’s digital infrastructure company, enabling digital leaders to harness a trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success. Equinix enables today’s businesses to access all the right places, partners and possibilities they need to accelerate advantage. With Equinix, they can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value.

About OpenRice
Headquartered in Hong Kong, OpenRice is an all-encompassing O2O foodtech services platform, providing users with comprehensive and updated restaurant information, F&B content and dining services. OpenRice’s comprehensive dining ecosystem includes services like OpenRice Pay, Table Booking, Vouchers, Takeaway, Restaurant Management System (RMS), Recruitment, POS, Remote Queuing, Scan to Order, Market Insights, and Membership. It has a regional presence across Asia, including Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

About HKBN Enterprise Solutions
HKBN Enterprise Solutions (“HKBNES”) is the enterprise solutions arm of HKBN Group (“HKBN” or the “Group”). Headquartered in Hong Kong with operations spanning across Asian markets including Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia, the Group is a leading integrated telecommunications and technology services provider. The Group provides a full range of one-stop, high-quality information and communication technology (ICT) solutions and an unlimited services portfolio. HKBN’s extensive tri-carrier fibre infrastructure covers around 2.5 million residential homes and around 8,000 commercial buildings and facilities across Hong Kong. Committed to creating a lasting positive impact to wherever it operates, HKBN embraces a core purpose to “Make our Home a Better Place to Live” and has received a rating of AA in MSCI's 2021 ESG Ratings assessment in environment, society and governance. Since 2016, HKBN has been a Constituent Member of the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Benchmark Index, with AA ratings for the past two consecutive years (2020 and 2021) – the highest in its industry. The Group is managed by hundreds of Co-Owners (supervisory and management level Talents in the Group) who invested their savings to buy shares of HKBN Ltd. (SEHK Stock Code: 1310). For more information about HKBN Enterprise Solutions, please visit www.hkbnes.net/en.

Forward-Looking Statements 
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions, unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; a failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

Media Contact

HKBN
Stella Ko
+852 9728 9289
media@hkbn.com.hk

Equinix
Annie Ho
+852 2970 7761
annho@ap.equinix.com

TEAM LEWIS
Tweety Chan
+852 3002 3761
equinixHK@teamlewis.com