By year's end, mobile payment will be accepted on all public buses in Hangzhou, consolidating¹ its reputation as a mobile application pioneer.

 

到今年年底，杭州所有公交车将支持移动支付，巩固了其移动应用先锋的地位。

 

 

Hangzhou Public Transportation Group, the city's main public transportation service provider, announced on Tuesday that it will have mobile payment terminals in its 5,000 downtown buses by the end of June and in the remaining 3,000 buses in outlying districts by the end of December.

 

"Mobile payment is accepted and used by Hangzhou's residents in their daily life in areas like shopping, eating, taking a taxi-all except for taking a bus," said Weng Jun, deputy general manager of the group.

 

Almost 3.9 million passenger trips are made on public buses daily in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, and cash accounts for 48 percent of total fare income, about 1.7 million yuan ($247,000) a day.

 

The company launched a trial run of the mobile payment system on its No 506 route on Aug 1 last year.

 

"Only a dozen passengers, mainly young people, used the mobile payment every day at first. Gradually, the number grew to 200," Weng said.

 

The trial run was extended to more lines and buses. "More than 800 buses on 30 lines have had terminals installed. The results met our expectations, pushing us to formally launch the move on all buses."

 

The terminals were developed by the bus group and Alipay, the payment tool of Alibaba affiliate² Ant Financial. Alibaba is based in Hangzhou.

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