Hong Kong’s Octopus to launch payment card for mainland Chinese public transport

Octopus Holdings, Hong Kong’s cashless payment operator, will soon launch a new transit card that works in more than 300 cities in mainland China.

Users of the Octopus transit card will be able to pay for public transport on buses and in rail transit to ferries in mainland China by the end of this year or early next year, according to chief executive Angus Lee Chun-ming.

The rise of digital payment empires such as Alipay and WeChat Pay threaten the home-grown operator’s share of the city’s digital payment sector.