HKT Boosts Mobile Payments, FinTech Push

In the latest push toward mobile payments in Asia, South China Morning Post reported that the telecommunications firm HKT has boosted its Tap & Go service to expand to both online and offline payments to retailers, with additional new features tied to P2P payments.

The continued efforts in mobile payments come as the firm was one of four in Hong Kong last year to receive a stored value license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Other services to receive the license included Tencent’s WeChat Pay, Alibaba’s Alipay Wallet and a unit of Octopus Cards.

The outlet said that the trajectory of mobile payments in Hong Kong has been less robust than seen in other countries, with China as a glaring example, as there are 332 million, or roughly half of the country’s citizens, forecast by eMarketer to embrace paying with devices by the year 2020. By the end of this year, 38 percent of smartphone users based on China’s mainland are expected to buy goods and services through their mobile phones.

Among the new services offered by HKT is the PaymentPartner service, with in-store payments driven by apps or QR codes.

There’s also the ability to have five accounts registered per family with the Tap & Go PayMaster service and a peer-to-peer payments platform, known as PayBuddy.