Most Hongkongers think government lags in promoting e-payment in the city: poll

Although most Hongkongers use the Octopus card and other forms of electronic payment every day, eight in 10 of them – far more than their counterparts in Singapore, Macau and on the mainland – believe the government is lagging behind in further promoting e-payment, according to a survey of six Asian cities.

Local tech expert Paul Fung Tak-chung said the city’s government, unlike the Singaporean authorities, had not introduced a standard which allows different platforms to accept multiple e-payment methods.

It had also not brought in any regulations to lower the installation costs of e-payment readers and ensure a level playing field for small and medium-sized businesses, Fung said.

China sets up clearing house for online payment services like AliPay and Tenpay

The survey was conducted by Ocean, an affiliated branch of the Junior Chamber International Hong Kong, from January to June. A total of 601 people between the ages of 15 and 45 were polled for their opinions on e-payment. The participants came from Hong Kong, Zhongshan, Macau, Kaohsiung, Osaka and Singapore.

The study found 73 per cent of Hongkongers used the Octopus card or other stored value cards as their main e-payment method, 11 per cent used credit cards and the rest used other options including PayPal, WeChat Pay, Alipay, Apple Pay and bitcoin.

The other cities had their own preferred platforms – WeChat in Zhongshan (72 per cent), credit cards in Kaohsiung (67 per cent), Singapore (48 per cent) and Osaka (43 per cent), and stored value cards in Macau (67 per cent).

Rating the prevalence of e-payment on a scale from one to 10, Singaporeans gave the highest score of 7.5, followed by residents in Zhongshan with a 6.9 rating, and Hong Kong and Taiwan, who both gave 6.4. It was 6.3 for Macau citizens and 5.8 for the Japanese.