ComfortDelGro Taxi and Alipay+ announced Wednesday 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, both parties said in a statement.

“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,” said ComfortDelGro Taxi’s Chief Executive Officer Jackson Chia.

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.

“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,” said Cherry Huang, General Manager, Global Merchant Partnership, South and Southeast Asia, Ant Group.

“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.

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.

Cited Singapore Tourism Board, the statement said 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 9th out of the top 15 visitor source markets in 2019.

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