Starting from 2019, you can pay for all taxis in Seoul, South Korea using your Alipay account, according to an official release by the Seoul Metropolitan Government on October 24.
The news comes hot on the heels of an announcement introducing QR code-based e-payment in 71,000 taxi-cabs in the city, which will begin in January next year.
When the service is implemented, Chinese tourists will be able to pay for taxis using Alipay via Kakaopay, a Korean mobile payment service provider, while local residents can also pay for their taxi fares using Kakaopay. It is unclear, however, whether citizens of countries other than China can do the same when traveling there.
Alipay, run by its parent company, Ant Financial Services Group, is the world’s leading third-party mobile and online payment platform with more than 520 million active users in China and 280 million users overseas in 2017.
According to China Daily, the strategic collaboration between Alipay and Kakaopay began last year with the two making Alipay payment available in taxis across the Pyeongchang and Gangneung areas, where the Winter Olympics were held in February.
Taxis are not the only place where Alipay is widely accepted. In February, all Starbucks across South Korea began to accept payments through Alipay. It is part of Alipay’s continuing efforts to bring the cashless experience which Chinese tourists are used to at home to South Korea, according to Danny Chung, general manager of Alipay Korea.
The introduction of the Alipay payment service is expected to help attract even more tourists from the Middle Kingdom to South Korea in the near future. Chinese tourists made up about one third (4.17 million) of the country’s inbound tourists in 2017.
[Cover image via finance.sina.com.cn]
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