Octopus streamlines digital payments for taxi rides in Hong Kong

By Gloria Methri

Mainland visitors and Hong Kong residents will soon have more options to pay for their taxi rides. Octopus Cards Limited is enabling 21,000 Hong Kong taxi drivers to accept QR payments using UnionPay, AlipayHK and Alipay through the Octopus App for Business and Octopus Mobile POS

The inclusion of UnionPay, AlipayHK, and Alipay solves one of the biggest pain points when paying for taxi rides in Hong Kong by offering more choices. Customers with an Octopus card can continue to tap and pay at the same Mobile POS

To encourage sign-up from taxi drivers, the company will also continue to waive transaction fees for taxi drivers until the end of 2025.

Tim Ying, Chief Executive Officer, of Octopus Holdings Limited said, “Our mission is to make everyday life easier through a 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.”

Taxi drivers can start accepting payments by updating their existing Octopus App for Business. After updating the App, drivers just need to enter the payment amount, and passengers can tap their Octopus card or scan the QR code on the paired mobile POS to pay.

To further boost taxi acceptance, the company is rolling out a referral programme to onboard more taxi drivers to join the Octopus platform. Starting March 31, drivers who successfully refer their peers to open an account will receive a HK$100 reward for each new referral. To qualify, the referred drivers must make at least five 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. The company will also give newly registered taxi drivers complimentary Octopus Mobile POS devices and waive their transaction fees.