Originally Posted by
Kilian Zoll
I think his point is that the slow uptake of Alipay/Wechat in HK is not necessarily due to Octopus as you seem to suggest. It is likely more due to the fact that HK is an extremely slow moving society from a tech perspective. While many countries are moving in the cash-less direction, HK is still very much a cash dependent society (e.g. 90% of taxis only accepting cash as payment). Not to mention e-commerce which is nearly non-existent in HK compared to many other parts of Asia (with China leading the way) - not to mention other parts of the world.
In fact, many payment providers/systems in Europe are adopting features from Alipay/Wechat, so even though the tech isn't necessarily new -- many of the ideas and implementations certainly are.
Bolding mine and to prove your point:
Launch of new eTaxi app in Hong Kong hailed as ‘historic’
"With increasing numbers of taxis accepting Octopus electronic payments instead of cash, Hong Kong will enter the cashless era and move closer to becoming a smart city”
This is published today. In April of 2019. While it may be historic in the sense that it was a common effort (but then, why have only 10% of cabbies signed up?) it proves how far behind we are when it comes to cashless payments. Personally, I am not unhappy about it as I prefer the relative anonymity of the Octopus system vs. anything linked to me personally.