In linguistic landscape studies, signs displayed in public place are generally classifi ed into two types: official signs and private signs. This paper takes issue with this widely-accepted classifi cation, arguing that the offi cial-private distinction fails to address the language use differences on signs targeted at the insiders and those targeted at the outsiders of a speech community. The linguistic landscape in various speech communities of Macau has demonstrated the existence of insider-outsider difference. In this study, the linguistic landscape in Hong Kong’s speech communities are examined, and the findings also clearly support the distinction of insider-oriented and outsider-oriented signs. It is argued that multilingual speech communities have advantages over monolingual speech communities, with the former more inclined to accommodate internal and external needs. The classification of linguistic landscape thus should not only take into account the language differences between offi cial and private sectors, but also the internal-external differences in a speech community.