China’s subway systems open up to phone payments

Subway riders in China’s capital can now tap their phones to open the gates. Starting this week, this easy way to pay the fare is available across Beijing’s network, following a limited trial that began June.

GIF by Tech in Asia, from footage by Beijing TV.

There’s one issue: iPhone users can’t join the fun, reports China Daily. That’s because Apple’s contactless payment tech (also known as NFC) is locked to just Apple Pay. So only transit riders with Android phones can tap at the gate – so long as their phone is relatively new and therefore has an NFC chip inside.

To make it work, Beijing subway riders just need to add the digital version of the network’s travel card to their phone. Once done, they can top-up the card using an array of payment options.

GIF by Tech in Asia, from footage by Beijing TV.

The capital – which has 21 million residents – already sees 200,000 phone taps each day thanks to the earlier trial period, making up two percent of the network’s daily payments.

Guangzhou, a city of 14 million in southern China, made the same move for its subway in May.

Chinese consumers already lead the world in paying with their phones, both online and in-store. 511 million people use the likes of Alipay and WeChat for online payments, while 463 million use their phones to pay for things in shops and restaurants, according to fresh data this month from China’s tech ministry.