PORTLAND, Ore, April 7, 2008 — Vesta Corporation, an innovator and worldwide leader in payment solutions and services, announced that its Chinese subsidiary KPay has officially launched retail payment services for the Beijing Transit Card at Wu Mart, Beijing’s largest retailer. Wu Mart generates annual retail revenues exceeding USD3 billion from over 400 retail outlets, ahead of Jing Ke Long and France’s Carrefour.
The Beijing transit card is a stored value device using contactless IC technology for payment in buses, subways and taxis. Over 15 million transit cards have been issued to commuters throughout the city. Last year, the city government contracted with KPay to extend the acceptance of the transit card into stores for retail purchases.
“Wu Mart chose to accept the transit card for non-cash retail payments because the payment service is convenient, fast and secure,” said Doug Fieldhouse, CEO and President of Vesta Corporation. He noted that Wu Mart will be able to attract more customers due to a greater assortment of payment options.
Wu Mart is an important partner in helping KPay expand acceptance of the transit card and grow its payment network. KPay expects to install and support over 500 Wu Mart point-of-sale terminals, increasing the breadth of KPay’s transit card payments network.
“KPay’s point-of-sale network can also offer value-added services for Wu Mart, including loyalty and discount programs, member cards and other card payments options,” said Lu Hong Fa, General Manager of KPay. “Our versatile POS terminals are capable of accepting not only contactless cards, but also bank debit and credit cards.”
KPay is a division of Vesta Corporation, a worldwide leader in value-added payment solutions for a variety of industries. KPay’s business is a pre-paid scheme for retail in Beijing, where funds can be added to an IC stored value card for use in the transportation system and a variety of retail outlets throughout the city. The Beijing city government issues the cards for use by commuters in the city’s transit systems including buses, subways and taxis, and has granted KPay the first concession to extend use of the cards into retail and other services. KPay has built out a payment network of point-of-sale terminals (“POS”) to process card transactions at thousands of retail outlets in the city. For more information, visit www.kuaipay.com
Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, USA, with operations in China and Europe, Vesta has been a pioneer and worldwide leader in electronic payment solutions since 1995. Vesta has established long-term, successful relationships with leading international companies including AT&T Mobility, AT&T Long Distance, Boost Mobile, China Mobile, China Unicom, Ericsson, Meteor Mobile Communications, Payzone, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
Mark Atkeson VP, China, Vesta Corporation mark@9588.com +86 10 5986-2244