MTR Users Will Soon Be Able to Pay Using TNG, UnionPay and WeChat Pay
by Fintech News Hong Kong November 22, 2018Consumers will soon have more payments option for their MTR rides beyond just Octopus cards. Fresh out of their earlier announcement to enable Alipay by 2020, MTR awarded contracts to 3 more players, namely TNG Wallet, Union Pay and WeChat Pay.
The QR code based payment is expected to be made available 2021, 1 year after Alipay’s exclusive rights expires. This puts Alipay at a significant advantage over it’s bitter rival WeChat Pay with an additional 1 year time frame to launch aggressive user acquisition campaigns.
The introduction of new options will likely a take a bite out of Octopus Card’s very dominant position in Hong Kong with 99% of its citizens using the card.
Hong Kong has often been referred to as a victim of its own success when it comes to their mobile wallet push, the popularity of Octopus was cited by some as a reason why Hong Kong was slow to explore other payment options.
The end of its monopoly could potentially the be tipping to point to realise Hong Kong’s cashless ambitions.
