ComfortDelgro – the largest taxi operator here with more than 15,000 taxis across its Comfort and CityCab brands – introduced the payment option on all of its cabs on July 12. More than 10,000 transactions have been made using Alipay since.
Alipay is the world’s largest mobile payment platform, with more than 520 million users, most of whom are Chinese nationals.
Visitors from China make up Singapore’s top-spending travellers.
The Straits Times reported last month that there were 2.86 million visitors from China last year, who spent an estimated $3.52 billion here.
ComfortDelGro Taxi chief executive officer Ang Wei Neng said the firm is already seeing hundreds of Alipay transactions daily and expects to see “thousands” soon.
Alipay Southeast Asia head Dayong Zhang said he was pleased to partner with ComfortDelgro, adding Chinese tourists can now travel to Singapore with only “their smartphone and passport”.
ComfortDelgro has been increasing the number of cashless payment options on its taxis. Last month it announced it would allow passengers to use DBS Bank’s PayLah app to pay for cab fares.
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