By year's end, mobile payment will be accepted on all public buses in Hangzhou, making the city the first in China to do so on all its buses and consolidating its reputation as a mobile application pioneer.
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.
The company launched a trial run of the mobile payment system on its No 506 route on Aug 1.
The terminals were developed by the bus group and Alipay, the payment tool of Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial. Alibaba is based in Hangzhou.
"Passengers can use Alipay and UnionPay flash payment cards on this terminal. ApplePay, SamsungPay, HuaweiPay, MiPay and AndroidPay can be used with smartphones or wearables like watches and electronic bracelets," said Liu Xiaojie, general manager of public services at Ant Financial.
Traditional cash payments and city transport cards will be kept to meet the needs of those who might be unfamiliar with mobile payment, like older riders.
UnionPay provides several security policies and measures to secure payments and accounts, the company said.
"Passengers put the UnionPay card on the terminal, and the machine can read the card automatically without signature and password. Security is the main concern," said Fan Hang, deputy general manager in Zhejiang for UnionPay.
Alipay has also started test runs in several cities with the local public transportation authorities, such as Wuhan, capital of Hubei province.