40 Under 40 2024: Ryan Cheung, PressLogic

Ryan Cheung

CEO
PressLogic
Hong Kong 

As a young entrepreneur in the adtech world, Ryan Cheung’s rise up the ranks is a little unconventional. His career kicked off at Commerzbank AG where he focused on sales of equity markets and commodities. Then, at Leonteq, he led the product solutions team for Greater China institutions. In 2016, he made the bold step of carving out his own adventure via PressLogic, a firm that aims to ‘revolutionise adtech’ through data-driven tech solutions and content marketing.

In just over eight years, the company has expanded its footprint across Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, and India. This speaks volumes about Cheung’s visionary mindset and tolerance of risk. But how exactly was he able to set PressLogic apart among a sea of marketing and tech giants?

One tactic is product innovation. In 2016, when social media was still in an early phase of data-driven solutions, Cheung helped to implement proprietary tech to analyse social-media trends. This positioned PressLogic ahead of its competitors and set a standard within the company. This showcase of innovation propelled it to be admitted to Hong Kong Science & Technology Park’s Elite Program with funding up to HK$21.5 million (US$2.8 million) and a chance to put the company on a global stage.

As a leader, Cheung isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves. He meets with clients daily to better understand the market and uses feedback as improvement markers. Last year, he spent three months acting as a salesperson by meeting clients and understanding their needs. This led to the securement of deals from F&B chains and cosmetic brands in Hong Kong, and most importantly, allowed him to better train his sales team.

Cheung’s own invention, MediaLens, an AI SaaS platform to unlock viral content potential and maximise ROI, has allowed PressLogic to become more operationally effective. And to ensure that he’s not gatekeeping knowledge, he provides industry reports generated by MediaLens with the hope of fostering a more informed marketing community in Hong Kong. Appropriately, MediaLens picked up a Certificate of Merit at the Hong Kong ICT Awards last year.