Hong Kong ding dong over dotcom float

Dotcom hysteria took to the streets yesterday as hoards of investors in Honk Kong rushed to hand in their share applications for entertainment portal, Tom.com. Traffic came to a standstill, shops had to shut down and police were called as tens of thousands of would-be investors queued outside branches of HSBC bank. The FT reported that 50,000 people queued outside one branch alone. What makes Tom.com so appealing is that it is owned by Li Ka-shing (Stress the "shing" and his name makes the sound of an old fashioned cash register, apt don't you think?), a tycoon with a mass following in Hong Kong. The thinking goes that if anyone is to succeed in this dotcom game, it's going to be him, claim those clinging tightly to their application forms. His nickname is "Superman". Apparently, this latest rush to cash in on the e-revolution apparently went off without a scuffle. Of course, yesterday's events may well have been orderly, but it may be a different story if/when dotcom mania take a tumble. ®