[HONG KONG] Social media and e-commerce firms are driving office leasing activity in Asia after they took up the most new office space in the second quarter, overtaking financial companies, Cushman & Wakefield says.

Internet companies such as LinkedIn Corp and Amazon.com made up 21 per cent of the space taken up in the second quarter, compared with the 14 per cent by financial companies, according to the New York-based real estate services firm.

The new space they occupied was 1.1 million square feet, more than the previous three quarters combined, Cushman data shows.