Hong Kong's Octopus company wants long-time users to trade in their first-generation cards
Hongkongers still using their first-generation Octopus cards are being encouraged to replace them as the city's transportation and payment technology moves further into the digital age.
There are still some two million first-generation cards in circulation, even though they haven't been issued since 2003, the Octopus Cards company said. But the old cards can't be linked to Octopus' Android smartphone app, which allows users to check records and balances and make payments.
Starting yesterday, Octopus has begun operating kiosks in MTR stations to allow people to exchange the old "on-loan" cards for new versions.
The whole process, which is free and voluntary, takes about a minute. All the data in the old cards will be automatically transferred to the new cards. The company plans to start with kiosks in 10 stations before expanding to more than 20 city-wide.
Octopus issued the "on-loan" cards to users, who were required to pay a refundable deposit, as they still do today. It also sold first-generation cards, but the replacement scheme targets the on-loan version.
Octopus Cards CEO Sunny Cheung said there was nothing wrong with the first-generation Octopus cards, and they were still reliable. But he said the company wanted to gradually replace them as they could not be used with the app.
"Our objective is to fix it before it is broken. I think for the first generation card, because they were issued a number of years ago, [users] can't enjoy new mobile services," Cheung said.
But if users don't want to give up their old cards, they won't be forced to - yet. "We don't have a set date to make those cards obsolete."
The new cards will allow users to check the latest 40 transaction records and make payments online through the app on near-field-communication-enabled (NFC) mobile devices.
Cheung said the old cards would be shredded. He said the replacement exercise would pose no risk to people's data security.
Launched in 1997, Octopus is co-owned by five transportation companies. As of last year, more than 99 per cent of Hongkongers aged 15 to 64 owned an Octopus card. With over 28 million cards in circulation, there are about four for every Hongkonger.
