FamilyMart Unveils Cashless App; Victoria Taps Into Mobile Transit Payments

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes the acceptance of smartphone payments for transportation in Australia. Finserve is looking to grow WeChat Pay’s and Alipay’s presence in Africa, Taiwan’s FamilyMart unveiled a “My Famipay” cashless payment app, and an LM Research survey discovered that over 60 percent of businesses in Croatia prefer cash payments.

Passengers on the Victorian government’s public transportation network will be able to pay for their trips via their smartphones by the close of the week, ZDNet reported. Through the myki mobile app, riders will be able to use their Android smartphones for payments. The system can be used at train stations and on Melbourne trams, as well as buses that are enabled for myki. Minister for Public Transport Melissa Horne said, according to ZDNet, “Mobile myki will make topping up and touching on quicker, and [traveling] easier.” The technology, which taps into Google Pay, was created with Google and NTT Data.

In other news, a regional financial institution in Kenya is looking to grow Alipay’s and WeChat Pay’s presence in Africa, Xinhua reported. Finserve Africa Managing Director Jack Ngare said, “We are currently at advanced stages of rolling out WeChat Pay and Alipay to merchants in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the end of the year, and thereafter to additional Africa markets.” Finserve Africa is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Equity Bank, which also counts subsidiaries in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, among other countries. Through the payment gateway service, merchants will be able to take payments from Alipay and WeChat users in Central and East Africa.

On another note, Taiwan’s FamilyMart convenience store company unveiled a cashless payment app called “My Famipay” for smartphones, Taiwan News reported. Moreover, users can tap into the app, which will be available to Cathay United Bank or Taixin International Bank cardholders, to transfer gifts or tap into limited-time offers. Users who download the app and make a purchase with the service amid the product’s first public rollout phase will receive a reward, such as tea or coffee.

And an LM Research survey made for Auka, a Norwegian firm, found that over 60 percent of businesses in Croatia prefer cash payments, Total Croatia News reported. However, close to eight in 10 – or 77 percent – forecast that mobile payments will “prevail” during the decade to come. Roughly seven in 10 Croatian business take credit cards, and slightly more than one-third of firms accept contactless payments via mobile phone. Nearly half – 45 percent – of Croatian business that don’t currently accept mobile payments plan to consider doing so over the next year.