All change at the counter
An electronic cashcard that can be used for small, everyday purchases has been promised for years. It would let you pay for cinema tickets, groceries, vending-machine snacks and your daily bus or train ride with a wave of the wallet across a scanner.
In the 1990s such techno-Utopian fantasies led to hundreds of millions of dollars being sunk in doomed “e-cash” projects. But at last the electronic cash revolution is quietly under way in Hong Kong. It is being driven by Octopus, the contactless smartcard used by virtually all the territory's residents aged over 16. It started as a transport payment device that can now be used in shops. This year smartcard industry insiders expect to see electronic cashcard payment systems launched around the world; and public transport authorities, including those in San Francisco and in the Netherlands, will roll out contactless smartcard fare collection systems. Chris Corum, executive editor of ContactlessNews.com, a Virginia-based publication that tracks applications of such technologies, says: “The Octopus programme is the model that the rest of the world is looking to. They have helped blaze the trail for other projects.”
Octopus Cards was launched in 1997 as a joint venture of Hong Kong's main public transport operators to provide a unified fare-collection system. The credit card-sized cards, which cost a HK$50 (US$6.40) refundable deposit, quickly gained consumer acceptance, with 3m cards entering circulation within three months. The cards represented the first commercial use of Sony's FeliCa radio frequency identification (RFID) chip. RFID chips, which can be programmed for contactless transactions that is, with no magnetic strips or sliding card readers on them are already in use for many supply-chain management, security and other applications.
By 2000, millions of Hong Kong residents had an Octopus card, because so many use public transport, and the card operator branched into retail use. Octopus is accepted at nearly 300 merchants at thousands of locations in the territory, with more signing up every month. Even the traditional wet markets now take the cards.
Of the 8.6m transactions worth HK$60m made with Octopus cards on an average day, 15 per cent by value are now from retail locations. A typical Octopus-enabled retailer will see up to 10 per cent by number of transactions made with the card instead of cash.
Passengers' habit of using the cards for public transport was more or less a prerequisite for the success in retail, explains Eric Tai, chief executive of Octopus Cards, which is majority-owned by MTR, Hong Kong's subway operator. “We have a killer application transportation, which customers have to use on a regular basis,” he says. “Just retail, which is irregular, makes it hard to form a habit, so you tend to revert to your old habits, which is using cash.”
The next stage is to bolster retail use both by persuading more retailers to accept the cards and by changing consumer habits.
For retailers, Mr Tai argues that the benefits of Octopus a good reputation, lower cash-handling costs and faster turnround time at the till more than make up for the 1 to 4 per cent commission Octopus collects and the cost of till-side scanners (HK$3,000).
For persuading consumers, Octopus trains retail staff to encourage payment by Octopus and pays them incentives. It is installing machines for reloading Octopus cards next to bank ATMs. Airline miles and other promotional perks are offered, as is free protection against loss or theft of cards.
RFID means Octopus cards can be used as office building passes or for recording attendance at school, which also encourages the habit of carrying the card every day. Douglas Brown, marketing manager of Wellcome Hong Kong, a local supermarket chain, says the card's “scale and reach were growing at such a pace that it was a matter of time before having Octopus was a necessity to compete. So we signed up rather than be forced into it later on.” Mr Tai hopes to see Octopus cards eventually account for 20 to 30 per cent of its merchants' transactions. The card's usefulness lies in its availability for small purchases worth HK$100 or less where it is not worth the bother and delay of using a credit card. The current average retail transaction using Octopus is HK$6.50.
Asian cities have been the quickest to follow Octopus. Singapore launched its Ez-link card for public transport in April 2002, using similar contactless RFID technology, and soon expanded the card into retail applications, with McDonald's becoming Singapore's first fast-food chain to join the programme in 2003. In Japan, the major railways, a nationwide convenience store chain, and most recently NTT DoCoMo have all launched card- or mobile phone-based contactless payment systems, some interoperable and all based on Sony's FeliCa RFID chip.
Other cities, such as London, Washington and San Francisco, are at much earlier stages of building critical mass for contactless smartcards for their subway systems, but there is already discussion of the possibilities for extending into retail. The Netherlands is this year launching a contactless smartcard that will work on its railways, with consulting help from Octopus.
The credit card companies too are are planning to launch contactless smartcard payment systems as a way of capturing low-value purchases. MasterCard has announced it will launch its PayPass contactless smartcard in the US this year following successful trials in Orlando, Dallas and New York in the past two years; McDonald's has already signed on as a key participating retailer. Visa has announced similar, though less developed, plans for Europe and elsewhere.
Mr Corum of ContactlessNews says: “The MasterCards and Visas of the world are saying: if it worked in Hong Kong, what if we tied in with the transport authority in Boston, Dubai, or wherever? Let's help them and have them help us get those cards out there.”
八达通卡为香港人钱包“减肥”
多年来，业界一直在许诺一种可用于日常小额支付的电子现金卡。只需在扫描器前挥一挥皮夹，即可购买电影票、食品杂货、自动售货机中的零食，还可每日乘坐公共汽车或火车。
90年代，这种乌托邦式的技术幻想导致数亿美元沉入电子现金(e-cash)项目的无底深渊。但一场电子现金革命终于在香港悄无声息地展开。其主角是几乎所有16岁以上的香港居民都在使用的“八达通”(Octopus)无接触智能卡。它起初是一种交通付款装置，而现在可用于在商店购物。今年，智能卡业内人士预计，电子现金卡支付系统将在世界范围内得到推广，而且包括旧金山和荷兰在内的公共交通部门将推行无接触智能卡售票系统。ContactlessNews.com执行总编克里斯?科隆(Chris Corum)称，“八达通项目被世界其它地方视为参照模式，将成为其它项目的开路先锋。”ContactlessNews.com总部设在美国弗吉尼亚州，是一家追踪这类技术应用情况的网站。
八达通卡有限公司(Octopus Cards)成立于1997年，是香港主要公共交通运营商的合资企业，目的是提供一个统一的售票系统。八达通卡和信用卡一样大小，卡内需存入可退还的50港币(6.40美元)定金。八达通卡很快赢得消费者支持，3个月内有300万张卡进入流通。该卡标志着索尼(Sony)推出的FeliCa无线射频识别(RFID)芯片首次投入商用。RFID芯片上没有磁条或滑动卡读写器，编程后可进行无接触交易， 已应用于许多供应链管理、安全和其它领域。
到2000年，拥有八达通卡的香港居民已有几百万，因为使用公共交通的人数众多。八达通卡运营商开始发展零售用途。目前，八达通可在香港境内近300个商家的几千个零售点使用，登记注册的商家还在逐月增加。现在，甚至连传统的街市也开始接受八达通卡。
八达通卡日均交易数为860万次，交易额达6000万港币，其中15%的交易额来自零售点。典型情况下，一家加盟八达通系统的普通零售商将看到，以八达通卡代替现金的交易数将达10%。
八达通卡有限公司行政总裁戴勇牧(Eric Tai)解释说，乘客在公共交通中使用八达通卡的习惯，或多或少是它在零售领域获得成功的前提条件。香港地铁运营商MTR拥有该公司大部分股权。“我们有一个杀手级应用，那就是顾客必须经常使用的交通，”他说，“零售不是规律性的，很难使它变成一种习惯，所以你往往会回到使用现金的旧习惯。”
下一步将通过说服更多的零售商接受八达通卡和改变消费者习惯，推动该卡在零售业中的使用。
戴先生认为，对于零售商来说，使用八达通的好处在于它的名声好，现金处理成本更低和收银机交易处理更快，这些优势超出八达通收取的1%到4%的手续费和扫描器成本(3000港币)。
为说服消费者，八达通对零售员工进行培训，让他们鼓励顾客用八达通付款，并给予他们奖励。现在，八达通公司在银行提款机(ATM)旁安装了八达通卡的充值机。公司提供飞行里程和其它促销优惠，并为八达通卡的遗失或被盗提供免费保护。
RFID技术意味着八达通卡可用作办公大楼的通行证或学校出勤记录，这也鼓励大家养成每天带卡出门的习惯。香港本地连锁超市惠康公司(Wellcome Hong Kong)市场部经理道格拉斯?布朗(Douglas Brown)说，该卡的“规模和影响增长迅猛，成为商家的竞争必需品只是时间问题。所以，我们已经登记加盟，而不是等日后被迫加盟。” 戴先生希望，八达通卡最终能占加盟商家交易总量的20%到30%。购买不到100港币的低价商品时，不值得使用信用卡，因为既麻烦又费时，但可使用八达通卡，它的实用性正体现于此。目前，使用八达通的平均零售交易价格为6.50港币。
亚洲城市跟风最快。2002年4月，新加坡推出了公交易通卡(Ez-link Card)，使用相似的无接触RFID技术，并很快扩大到零售业中。2003年，麦当劳(McDonald’s)成为新加坡首家加入易通卡的快餐连锁企业。在日本，主要的铁路、全国连锁便利店以及最近NTT DoCoMo全都采用了基于智能卡或手机的无接触支付系统，有些可相互兼容，并全部基于索尼推出的FeliCa RFID芯片。
伦敦、华盛顿和旧金山等其它城市起步相对较晚，正处于为其无接触智能卡地铁付费系统构建顾客基础的早期阶段，但它们已对扩大到零售业的可能性进行了探讨。今年，在八达通的咨询帮助下，荷兰推出了铁路系统使用的无接触智能卡。
信用卡公司也计划推出无接触智能卡支付系统，作为赢得低额交易的一种方式。万事达信用卡(MasterCard)已宣布，过去两年在奥兰多、达拉斯和纽约的试点获得成功后，今年将在美国推出“付款通行证”(PayPass)无接触智能卡；麦当劳已作为一个主要零售商签约加入。维萨卡(Visa)也已针对欧洲和其它地方宣布了相似但相对不够完善的计划。
ContactlessNews的科隆先生说，“全世界的万事达卡和维萨卡在说，如果在香港可行的话，如果我们与波士顿、迪拜或无论哪里的交通部门联系起来的话，那将会怎么样？让我们帮助它们，也让它们帮助我们做生意。”
