Octopus Cards Limited will soon enable 21,000 Hong Kong taxi drivers to accept QR payments from UnionPay, AlipayHK and Alipay through the Octopus App for Business and Octopus Mobile POS.
In a statement, the company said from January 25th, Mainland visitors and Hong Kong residents will have more options to pay for their taxi rides, marking the the first time in the company’s history that Octopus has opened its network to other payment platforms.
In doing so, it is aiming to solve a common pain point of paying for taxi rides by allowing customers with an Octopus card to tap and pay at the same Octopus Mobile POS. To encourage sign-up from taxi drivers, Octopus said it will also continue to waive transaction fees for taxi drivers until the end of 2025.
Tim Ying, Chief Executive Officer, Octopus Holdings Limited said: “Octopus’ mission is to make everyday life easier through fast, simple, and secure payment experience. As our network already connected with most taxi drivers, we saw an opportunity to make it even more convenient for Mainland visitors and Hong Kong residents to pay for their cab rides with the method they are familiar with.”
How it will work
Taxi drivers can start accepting payments by updating their existing Octopus App for Business. After updating the App, taxi drivers need to enter the payment amount, and passengers can tap their Octopus card or scan the QR code on the paired Octopus Mobile POS to pay.
To further boost taxi acceptance, Octopus is rolling out a referral programme until the end of March to onboard more taxi drivers to join the Octopus platform. Drivers who successfully refer their peers to open an Octopus App for Business account will receive a HK$100 reward for each new referral, the company said.
To qualify, the referred drivers must make at least five Octopus transactions worth HK$22 or more within the first 30 days of opening an account. Drivers can earn a maximum of 10 referral rewards, up to HK$1,000 in total.
Mr. Ying added: “By opening up our network for other payment service providers, Mainland visitors now have an option to scan and pay, in addition to tapping their Mobile Octopus and Octopus cards – solving a major pain point for many Mainland visitors attempting to pay digitally in Hong Kong taxis.”
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