Hong Kong needs a mindset change for digital payments to become more accepted, experts say
- On average, a Hongkonger uses a digital wallet two or three times a week, but only one-third in city are classified as heavy users at four to six times a week
A panel of experts on Thursday played down the notion that mainland China is much more advanced than Hong Kong in terms of the technology of mobile payments, saying it was more of a perception issue among consumers.
“It's more likely a change of mindset that is needed in Hong Kong [when looking at mobile payments adoption], how do people see digital and e-payments compared to cash,” said Effie Xin, managing partner of Asia-Pacific fintech and innovation financial services at EY in a “Redefining Hong Kong” panel discussion organised by the South China Morning Post.
“I would not say that mainland China is more advanced than Hong Kong [in this area].”
On average, a Hong Kong person uses a digital wallet two or three times a week, but only one-third of Hongkongers are classified as heavy users at four to six times a week, according to statistics from a 2019 Tofugear Digital Payments Landscape Report. The number of mobile payment users in China reached 659 million in 2018, and about 44 per cent of them carry out more than 75 per cent of their monthly expenditure via mobile payments, according to iiMedia Research.
Octopus, which was launched in 1997 in Hong Kong, was used by 99 per cent of Hongkongers aged between 15 and 64, with 36 million cards in circulation, as of 2019, according to the same report by Tofugear.