Many entrepreneurs venturing into cross-border e-commerce on Mercado Libre in Brazil and Mexico stumble right from the start: they blindly list products, get caught up in a price war, spend money haphazardly on ads, and choose products just because others are doing it. After working hard for half a year, they end up making no profit—or even walking away at a loss.

For sellers hoping to establish a long-term presence in the South African market, securing local trademarks has gone from being a “bonus” to a “must.” It is a crucial step toward accessing platform resources, protecting one’s rights, and building brand barriers.

In July 2026, South African e-commerce giant Takealot released financial results that thrilled the entire African tech community—marking its first full-year profit in nearly 15 years since its founding. A report released by its parent company, Naspers, for fiscal year 2026 (ending March 31, 2026) showed that the group’s revenue exceeded 17.7 billion rand (approximately $1 billion), with an adjusted operating profit of 171 million rand—a turnaround from a loss of 213 million rand in the same period the previous year. In just one year, the company achieved a turnaround of 384 million rand.

In recent years, competition in the European and American e-commerce markets has continued to intensify, and traffic acquisition costs have been rising steadily, prompting more and more cross-border sellers to seek new growth markets.

Meanwhile, South Africa is becoming a new target market for many Chinese sellers.

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On August 13, 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority tightened requirements for banks’ compliance self-inspections. All online account-opening channels were shut down, leaving video verification and in-person interviews in Hong Kong as the only options. If your Hong Kong company is still using registered addresses in other people’s names or falsified bank statements to get through the process, the next step will be permanent placement on the rejection list.
Let’s start with the bad news. On August 13, the Hong Kong Association of Banks, in conjunction with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, issued the latest compliance guidelines—all three channels—online account opening, document submission via app, and KYC via email—have been closed.

Starting today, there are only two ways to open a corporate bank account in Hong Kong: either fly to Hong Kong for an in-person interview, or undergo a video verification process in a designated city in mainland China, during which the director must appear on camera and have their ID and business premises verified on the spot.

There is some good news, however: the success rate for opening accounts for compliant Hong Kong companies is actually on the rise. Four banks—HSBC, Standard Chartered, Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation, and Hang Seng—are all competing to attract cross-border e-commerce and foreign trade companies with substantial business operations, and the ratio of successful account openings to applications is increasing even faster than in 2025.