In Hong Kong’s busy commercial area of Causeway Bay, a post office located in a major shopping centre served just a few dozen customers during lunch on Thursday.

Across 90 minutes, when nearby restaurants and shops were filled with residents pressed for time, the post office stayed mostly empty, its workers outnumbering the people they were serving.

Hongkong Post is struggling with the same existential threat facing other traditional mail service operators worldwide: how to stay relevant in a world where communication has gone digital and nimble logistics companies have taken over parcel deliveries.

In the 1997-98 financial year, Hongkong Post earned HK$1.23 billion (US$157 million) in profit. Over the past eight financial years, the self-financed government department has racked up HK$2.9 billion in losses.

On Wednesday, the government offered a lifeline, asking lawmakers to consider its plan to inject HK$4.6 billion into the department to sustain its operations for the next three years. That would give the service some breathing room while additional cost-saving measures were adopted and new sources of revenue explored, it said.

At the branch in the shopping centre, Sherry Wong, an office clerk in her thirties, said she only made the trip to file tax returns for her colleagues.