|
The Octopus card is a reusable contactless stored value smart card for making electronic payments in online or offline systems in Hong Kong. Launched in September 1997 to collect fares for the territory's mass transit system, the Octopus card system is the second contactless smart card system in the world, after the Korean Upass, and has since grown into a widely used payment system for all public transport in Hong Kong, leading to the development of Oyster Card in London. The Octopus card has also grown to be used for payment in many retail shops in Hong Kong, from convenience stores, supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, on-street parking meters, car parks, to other point-of-sale applications such as service stations and vending machines. The Octopus card won the Chairman's Award of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance's 2006 Global IT Excellence Award for, among other things, being the world's leading complex automatic fare collection and contactless smartcard payment system. According to Octopus Cards Limited, operator of the Octopus card system, there are more than 20 million cards in circulation,nearly three times the population of Hong Kong. The cards are used by 95% of the population of Hong Kong aged 16 to 65, generating over 12 million daily transactions worth a total over HK$130 million. Octopus Card Limited's and the cards' slogan is ''Making Everyday Life Easier'', which is also part of the corporation's mission statement. == History == Previously, Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) adopted a system to recirculate magnetic plastic cards as fare tickets when it started operations in 1979. Another of the territory's railway networks, the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR), adopted the same magnetic cards in 1984, and the stored value version was renamed Common Stored Value Ticket. In 1989, the Common Stored Value Ticket system was extended to Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) buses providing a feeder service to MTR and KCR stations and to Citybus, and was also extended to a limited number of non-transport applications, such as payments at photobooths and for fast food vouchers. The MTR Corporation eventually decided to adopt more advanced technologies, and in 1993 announced that it would move towards using contactless smartcards. To gain wider acceptance, it partnered with four other major transit companies in Hong Kong to create a joint-venture business to operate the Octopus system in 1994, then known as Creative Star Limited.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Our History )〕 The Octopus system was launched after three years of trials on 1 September 1997. Three million cards were issued within the first three months of the system's launch. The quick success of the system was compelled by the fact that MTR and KCR required all holders of Common Stored Value Tickets to replace their tickets with Octopus cards in three months or have their tickets made obsolete, which drove commuters to switch quickly. Another reason was the coin shortage in Hong Kong in 1997. With the transfer of Hong Kong away from British rule, there was a belief that the older Queen's Head coins in Hong Kong would appreciate in value, so many people hoarded these older coins and waited for their value to increase. The Octopus system was quickly adopted by other Creative Star joint venture partners, and KMB reported that by 2000, most bus journeys were completed using an Octopus card, with few coins used.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Development of KMB's Octopus Payment System )〕 Boarding a bus in Hong Kong without using the Octopus card requires giving exact change, making it cumbersome compared to using the Octopus card. By November 1998, 4.6 million cards were issued, and this rose to 9 million by January 2002.〔 In 2000, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted a deposit-taking company license to the operator, removing previous restrictions that prohibited Octopus from generating more than 15 percent of its turnover from non-transit-related functions. This allowed the Octopus card to be widely adopted for non-transit-related sales transactions. On 29 June 2003, the Octopus card found another application when the Hong Kong Government started to replace all its 18,000 parking meters with a new Octopus card-operated system. The replacement was completed on 21 November 2004. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Octopus card」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|