22 Aug 2007
Two Chinese technology firms, Blue Bamboo and KPay, have teamed up to launch retail payment services for the Beijing Transit Card. Currently, over 12 million contactless Beijing Transit cards have been issued to commuters in Beijing for use in the subway, buses and taxis.
KPay, a Chinese subsidiary of U.S.-based payments firm Vesta, has a five-year contract with the City of Beijing for the sale and distribution of prepaid Beijing Transit cards. The firm has also been contracted to set up a POS terminal network in convenience stores for transit card recharge. This network can be used by Transit cardholders to make retail payments for non-transit purchases, KPay says.
KPay and Blue Bamboo have worked together to add contactless chip technology to Blue Bamboo's H50 GPRS Terminals, so that they can be used for 'tap-and-go' retail purchases using transit cards.
According to KPay, Blue Bamboo's contactless POS terminals will be rolled out to thousands of retail stores in Beijing by the end of 2007.
Based in Shanghai, Blue Bamboo develops POS terminals which comply with the PCI and EMV standards.