One Card to Ride Them All: Subways Across China to Unify Payment
A newly available transportation card that will unify fare payments for public transportation systems in the Beijing/Tianjin/Hebei region signifies a new kind of convenience that will become available across the country by the end of the year.
The new transport card will allow users to access any bus or subway in Beijing, Tianjin or some cities in Hebei including Shijiazhuang, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan, Hengshui, Xingtai, Cangzhou, Baoding, Handan, Zhangjiakou, Chengde, and Langfang. In addition, users of the card will be eligible for any promotion or discount usually reserved for each of the city's own residents.
Although only issued in the Hebei capital of Shijiazhuang, residents in other cities shouldn't feel left out. With China set to unify transportation cards across the country by the end of the year, you soon may be able to hop on a subway throughout any of China's major cities just by swiping your phone.
At a Beijing conference last month, the Ministry of Transportation revealed that its upcoming universal transport card may incorporate QR code-reading technology to allow users to access public transportation systems through their mobile wallets.
Back in March, the ministry said the universal transportation card will allow users to ride any subways or buses belonging to any one of 220 prefecture-level cities by the end of the year.
Currently providing reciprocal travel to 190 cities, the universal transport card is set to provide access to all Chinese cities by 2020.
If implemented, the new feature will cap a year in which Chinese subway systems have adopted new technology at a blistering pace.
After introducing cashless fare reloaders and streamlined check-ins at the start of the year, Beijing followed Shanghai's lead to become one of the first cities in China to accept mobile wallet payments at subway station entrances (and buses). This year also saw iPhone users finally be allowed to bind their devices to their Beijing transport cards, a year after the same feature was offered to Android users.
Not content to rest on their laurels, the Beijing Metro recently said they hope to introduce facial recognition technology to its subway entrances in order to help speed up station access.
And yet, even accepting all the promised conveniences, commuters should be aware of the trade-offs they make in adopting the new technology. Although Chinese mobile payment operators stand to suffer huge losses to promote mobile wallet subway fare payments through equally huge incentives to consumers, they also stand to gain much in return.
"It's like a battlefield that each (mobile payment) participant has to scramble for," said Wang Pengbo, an analyst with consultancy Analysys. "Though it is not necessarily profitable, the massive user base it may offer suggests great business potential."
It's like a battlefield that each (mobile payment) participant has to scramble for. Though it is not necessarily profitable, the massive user base it may offer suggests great business potential.
And that potential lies in consumer information.
"Those internet companies can learn better about the habits and preferences of customers by recording data on their public transportation usage, to expand services in consumer finance," said Peking University researcher Liu Xinhai.
Images: Sina Tech (sina.com.cn), Sina, Hebei.gov.cn
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