Independent activist investor David Webb leaves behind a digital legacy in his portal Webb-site, which continues to serve as a vital financial database following his death from cancer.
Webb spent more than HK10 million since 2003 to operate the platform, which aggregates data on listed company directors, CCASS movements, and regulatory licenses. He previously described the work as his life's greatest pleasure, noting its utility for journalists, researchers, and investors.
The future of the site was initially uncertain after the University of Hong Kong rejected a 2020 proposal to take over the database. Despite Webb securing donor commitments, the university's senior management team vetoed the plan.
Facing his terminal illness, Webb moved to ensure the portal's survival by releasing its entire database and proprietary collection software on GitHub. He also introduced a Wikipedia-style system allowing registered volunteers to manually update board remuneration and auditor changes.
The original servers officially went offline in November, but the platform has since been revived by local medical AI startup 0xmd. Founder and chief architect Au Shiu-lun says the restoration is a non-profit initiative to preserve the public interest data.
The restored version, available at 0xmd.com/website, automatically updates CCASS records and share buyback data. The archive remains a goldmine for the tech industry, with reports indicating that OpenAI and ByteDance have heavily crawled the site to feed their data models.
