ANT-GROUP/COMFORTDELGRO

ComfortDelGro Taxi and Alipay+ today announced a partnership that enables mobile payments from Malaysia and South Korea, namely the Touch ‘n Go eWallet and Kakao Pay, to be accepted as cashless payment options in all its Comfort and CityCab taxis. Users of these mobile wallets can pay for the cab fare simply through the wallet apps without the need to exchange currency.

ComfortDelGro Taxi is Singapore’s largest taxi operator with a combined fleet of about 9,000 Comfort and CityCab taxis. Apart from cash payment, all ComfortDelGro Taxis currently support about 20 different cashless payment methods.

Introduced by Ant Group in 2020, Alipay+ is a suite of global cross-border digital payments and marketing solutions designed to enable businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, to process a wide range of mobile payment methods and reach 1 billion regional and global consumers, through one-time integration and simple technical adaption. Other leading e-wallets supported by Alipay+ include GCash (Philippines), TrueMoney (Thailand), Alipay HK (Hong Kong SAR, China) and more.

ComfortDelGro Taxi’s CEO, Mr Jackson Chia said of this partnership: “With Singapore reopening its borders, we are looking forward to having tourists come visit us. As such, our partnership with Alipay+ is a vital one as it allows cashless payment options such as Malaysia’s Touch ‘n Go eWallet and soon South Korea’s Kakao Pay available on board ComfortDelGro taxis, making it more convenient for both Malaysian and South Korean tourists to pay for taxi fares. This saves them the hassle of having to have ready cash in local currency as they are able to pay the fares upfront on their own Touch ‘n Go eWallet or Kakao Pay App.”

Speaking of the collaboration, Ms Cherry Huang, General Manager, Global Merchant Partnership, South and Southeast Asia, Ant Group said: “Transportation is an essential daily need; taxi of all modes of transportation is even more important especially to travelers. Through the support and collaboration with ComfortDelGro Taxi, we aim to deliver to all users of mobile payments supported by Alipay+ a seamless and smart digital travel experience in Singapore, where they can pay with mobile wallets they are familiar with.”

“This partnership also comes at a great time, as Singapore leads the way in opening up its borders and welcomes tourists back in the city state. We believe this is the perfect moment for tourists to reimagine travel experience post pandemic,” she added.

According to the Singapore Tourism Board, the number of visitors to Singapore in the first four months of 2022 has exceeded figures for the whole of 2021¹ . Malaysia is ranked #3 among the top countries where the most tourists are from. South Korea is also an important traveler source market for Singapore. In pre-COVID times, South Korea was ranked 9^th out of the top 15 visitor source markets in 2019² .

As part of a promotional campaign to commemorate this new collaboration, Touch ‘n Go eWallet users can enjoy instant discounts of RM4 or RM6 off their total fare when they pay for their rides using their Touch ‘n Go eWallet App from today until 25 June 2022. The discounts will vary in different weeks and are limited to the first 300 transactions daily.

About Ant Group

Ant Group aims to create the infrastructure and platform to support the digital transformation of the service industry. It strives to enable all consumers and small and micro businesses to have equal access to financial and other services that are inclusive, green and sustainable.

Ant Group is the owner and operator of Alipay, the leading digital payment platform in China serving hundreds of millions of users, and connecting them with merchants and partner financial institutions that offer inclusive financial services and digital daily life services such as food delivery, transport, entertainment, and healthcare.

Ant Group has further introduced Alipay+, which provides global cross-border mobile payments and marketing solutions that connect merchant partners, especially small and medium-sized businesses, with mobile payments and other payment methods, for them to better serve their users and customers from all over the world.

About ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited

ComfortDelGro is one of the world’s largest land transport companies with a total fleet size of about 35,000 buses, taxis and rental vehicles. We also run 177km of light and heavy rail networks in Singapore and New Zealand. Our global operations span seven countries – Singapore, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, China, Ireland and Malaysia. In Singapore, the Group operates about 9,000 Comfort and CtyCab taxis. For more information, visit www.comfortdelgro.com .

¹ Source: The Straits Times (https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/jan-april-tourist-numbers-exceed-arrivals-for-whole-of-2021-with-easing-of-border-curbs )
² Source: Singapore Tourism Board (https://www.stb.gov.sg/content/stb/en/media-centre/media-releases/Singapore-Tourism-Board-and-Studio-Dragon-Corporation-forge-a-three-year-partnership-to-jointly-promote-Singapore-through-branded-content.html )

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