Octopus takes mobile step to winning more customers
Dominant operator of electronic payment system seeks to beat competition by allowing purchases to be settled through the handphone
Making purchases with a smartphone is gaining a foothold in Hong Kong, and it has changed the habits of Sunny Cheung Yiu-tong, a die-hard fan of smart cards.
Cheung, the chief executive of Octopus Group, sometimes leaves his Octopus card at home, using his mobile phone to make payments instead.
Octopus Cards, which runs the city's earliest and dominant contactless smart card system, says competition from banks in payment technology is intense but it fights to maintain its pioneering advantage by providing a variety of ways to pay, such as Octopus watches instead of cards, and now by flashing the mobile.
HSBC and Hang Seng Bank have launched services using near-field communication (NFC) technology to allow holders of credit cards to pay for transactions with smartphones linked with the card accounts.
Users pay by flashing their NFC-ready smartphones on a card reader, similar to using Octopus cards.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has said it aims to facilitate the development of NFC mobile payment services in Hong Kong, following the United States, Britain, France, Japan and South Korea, which are planning or launching such services.