40,000 taxi drivers sign up for e-payment systems as new rules come into force

Hong Kong mandated that taxi drivers provide at least two digital payment options from April 1.

Photo: Jelly Tse More than 40,000 Hong Kong taxi drivers have adopted major electronic payment platforms AlipayHK and WeChat Pay HK, easing a protracted pain point for mainland Chinese visitors who are expected to arrive in droves during the coming Ching Ming Festival break.

AlipayHK, a joint venture of Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post, said on Thursday that its e-payment system was available to 46,000 taxi drivers.

WeChat Pay HK said it had more than 40,000.

This suggests widespread coverage, with Hong Kong having about 18,000 taxis and 46,000 active drivers based on Transport Department statistics.

The companies’ disclosure of their figures came a day after Hong Kong mandated that taxi drivers provide at least two digital payment options – one QR-based type such as AlipayHK, WeChat Pay HK or BoC Pay, and one contactless alternative capable of reading Octopus or credit cards.

The e-payment systems will provide convenience to mainland visitors who have been solely using e-wallets for years.

The Immigration Department said it expected 6.44 million trips to be made by Hong Kong residents and visitors via air, land and sea checkpoints between Friday and Tuesday, which covers the Easter long weekend and the Ching Ming Festival. “Since 2024, Ant International has been connecting international digital wallets in Hong Kong via Alipay+,” a company spokesman said. “Whether Hong Kong taxi drivers use the AlipayHK QR code, the Octopus machine’s AlipayHK QR code, or third-party POS [point-of-sale] terminals, they can accept fare payments from Hong Kong residents, mainland Chinese tourists and travellers from over 20 countries, including South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.” Tencent offered perks to attract more taxi drivers to adopt its system, giving a one-time HK$50 (US$6.40) bonus to those who successfully registered as a merchant via the “WeChat Pay HK payment code” mini-programme by April 30.

A taxi is plastered with stickers advertising e-payment systems that can be used to pay the fare.

Jelly Tse Some taxi drivers have opted for all-in-one smart meters, such as one provided by local tech firm Dash, which said it witnessed a 33 per cent jump in the number of transactions on the first day of the mandated service compared with the previous day.

The company added that more than 2,500 of its meter-linked t

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