New Zealand businessman Paul Ding is launching his New Zealand home shoppig television channel Yes Shop later this year, inspired by the successful Korean home shopping format.
The Korean format was entertaining, used technology and was interactive, he said in an interview.
His new television studios were already under construction in Auckland, an exciting development. Thirty staff would be working for Yes Shop when the channel started, a ''decent operation'', he said.
''Yes Shop will be a game-changer for home TV shopping and the New Zealand market generally. In addition, we want to see more Kiwi exporters realising the opportunities offered by Korean consumers and the distribution channels we can provide.''
Mr Ding (50) is the owner and chief executive of KD Media, a technology company listed on the Republic of Korea Stock Exchange. It is believed he is the first New Zealander to head a listed company in Korea.
In setting up his shopping channel, Mr Ding hoped to become the largest importer of Korean goods into New Zealand. Price and choice would be major selling points.
KD Media has been operating since 1962 and has the monopoly on the Korean Government contract to print lottery tickets. It also prints share certificates on demand, various money value coupons, such as shopping vouchers and bus tickets, and has an annual turnover of about $NZ20 million.
A second business has the rights to distribute Disney content throughout Korea, including DVDs.
All this is a far cry from Taieri, where Mr Ding was brought up as the fourth generation of a family that had its roots in Guangdong province, China.
Mr Ding's great-grandfather, Chun Ding, emigrated to New Zealand in 1908, working first at the Nokomai goldfields in Northern Southland before moving to Forbury in 1917, to start a market garden. Chun Ding's son followed out to New Zealand when the family bought land on the Taieri plain to become sheep farmers and market gardeners. Mr Ding said his great-grandfather was one of the few Chinese sheep farmers in New Zealand.
His father, Charlie, was born in Mosgiel, as was Paul Ding. Mr Ding attended The Taieri High School and the University of Otago where he graduated and became an accountant.
''My parents were very involved in the Chinese community and received awards for their efforts. In Dunedin, the two most prominent names in the Chinese community were Ding and Sew Hoy.''
Mr Ding was related to some of the Sew Hoy family but his immediate family had moved away from the area.
After leaving university, Mr Ding worked for KPMG before going to London for three years.
''I realised when I got home I didn't want to be an accountant any more, as I was interested in IT. I got to own an IT business, which is still going.''
After working in New Zealand, Mr Ding got ''itchy feet'' and started looking towards Asia for business opportunities.
''I wanted to be involved in capital markets but decided against trading in capital markets as traders are always the last to find out. By the time you have found out, others have made their money and moved on.
''I wanted to create those stories for myself rather than being fed the stories.''
After studying Asian bourses, Mr Ding found the second most liquid market in the world was in Korea, just behind the technology-rich Nasdaq, in the United States.
After looking at markets in Singapore, Taiwan, China, and small capital markets in Hong Kong and London, he decided his best option was to look for something in Korea.
''I looked at ways to get into the market and, eventually, took over KD Media.''
KD Media had little experience at capital raising and had the bonus of a core stable business model.
Korean markets were so liquid because domestic retail investors made up 70% of the market, with overseas investors coming in at 30% - the opposite of most other sharemarkets, he said.
Korea had tight foreign exchange rules and individuals could only send out the equivalent of $NZ10,000 at a time.
Wages were lower than those in New Zealand and people wanted to get ahead, Mr Ding said.
Property investment was difficult, as Koreans could not borrow as easily as New Zealanders. Interest rates were also low so people put their money into the sharemarket.
''All in all, Koreans know how to trade futures, options and warrants.''
In Korea, it was ''relatively easy'' to raise capital and it could be done without shareholder input, he said.
Company owners could hold as little as 5% of a Korean company and still run it like a private company because the owner had appointed the board. However, while the owner could make the decisions, he or she was totally accountable for the results.
Back to the shopping channel, Mr Ding said his distribution rights for Disney gave him access to 400 Korean retailers. Few other companies had that much level of access and he intended using that reach to source products for Yes.
Korea was the ''king of home shopping''. With a population of 50 million, Korea had six shopping channels only on cable television, and total annual turnover was about $US50 billion ($NZ63 billion). In contrast, home shopping turnover in the United Kingdom was about $US1.5 billion a year, Mr Ding said.
Although home shopping was big in Asia, no-one had bothered with New Zealand because of the size of the population and the barrier of Western ideas, he said.
Having access to Korean manufacturers gave Mr Ding the impetus to bring the business to New Zealand.
''When I brought Korean executives to New Zealand they couldn't believe the price of things and the limited choice. Shops close at 6pm and there is nothing on TV. People don't work late, they don't study late and they have all this time to watch TV.''
Mr Ding would employ Kiwi front people for Yes but would have experienced Koreans behind the scenes ensuring the channel ran smoothly.
''It comes down to product, price and experience. If you bring in the right products at the right price, people will come to you, anyway. We have things Westerners don't have.''
Large retailers had been talking to Mr Ding about becoming involved in the project and he planned a website to run alongside the channel where thousands of lines would be offered. He was working with retailers, including large national chains, as the plan proceeded.
Mr Ding was confident the channel would be popular with New Zealand's Asian population, which was not well served by local media outlets. Mr Ding was in Korea when Prime Minister John Key visited to try to reignite talks for a free-trade agreement between two countries.
The proposed FTA would deliver enormous benefits but New Zealand needed to convince Korea it would get benefits. Korea could get beef from Chile and the United States and dairy products from other parts of the world.
Imports of Samsung, LG and Hyundai products were second nature to New Zealanders but they had very little knowledge of the small-to-medium manufacturing sector. Yes Shop was one way smaller Korean manufacturers could gain access to another market and for New Zealanders to have access to a wider range of Korean products.
Korea was a manufacturing country and manufacturers were keen to get their products around the world, Mr Ding said.
Paul Ding
• Married with children
• Parents Charlie and Helen Ding
• Owner and chief executive of KD Media
• Born and educated on Taieri Plain
• University of Otago degree
• Establishing Yes Shop television shopping channel in New Zealand later this year.
• Aims to be the largest importer of Korean goods into New Zealand through the channel.
The Ding File
Chun Ding came to Dunedin from Guangdong in China in 1908. He was 32 and came to New Zealand to restore his fortunes. A disease had wiped out his farm's pigs in China and left him saddled with debt. His first nine years were spent at the Nokomai goldfield. In 1917, he moved to Dunedin.
Chun Ding began market gardening on leased land at Forbury and the next year went back to China. Unfortunately he lost all his money gambling, quite uncharacteristically, and soon returned to Dunedin. Taking up a second lease at Forbury, he developed a garden on the site of the present day King's High School.
Chun Ding lived in a small hut on site.Chun Ding's was one of 10 Chinese market gardens between Macandrew and Bay View Rds. The men who worked them maintained a low profile in the district, living in spartan conditions on their leased land.
Vegetables were hawked directly to housewives from horse and cart or sold on to produce markets. In 1920, Chun's son, Chew Cheung, came to New Zealand to help his father.
Their hard work in market gardens at Forbury, Kaikorai and on the Taieri was rewarded. Eventually they were able to bring their whole family to Dunedin.
By the 1960s, the Ding family had extensive land holdings near Outram and had become respected members of the Otago community.
Source: The Caversham Project
