Octopus announced that after launching the "National Pass" at the end of March this year, which allows for public transportation in 336 cities in the mainland, the group is currently researching and expanding its cross-border payment services to Japan. However, there is no timetable yet.

Yang Meizhen, the non-executive chairman of Octopus, said that in addition to the mainland, citizens can now use the Octopus App to make payments through PromptPay services at Thai merchants when traveling to Thailand, and the daily payment amount has increased by 50% around the summer holidays. In addition, Octopus UnionPay cards can also be used for payments at over 0.95 million ZeroPay consumer points in South Korea, such as restaurants, hair salons, and cafes.

Yang Meizhen revealed that in the future, Octopus services will not be limited to China, Thailand, and South Korea, and they will actively explore cooperation with payment platforms in different countries and regions. Octopus also plans to introduce personalization settings, such as changing the sound of tapping the card to an animal sound or a pre-recorded voice. Testing is expected to begin by the end of the year, but it will not be implemented on public transportation.

In addition, Sunny Ying, the CEO of Octopus, pointed out that Octopus currently has a penetration rate of 98%, covering 0.19 million payment points, with a daily transaction volume of 15 million transactions and a daily total transaction amount of 0.3 billion yuan. In the future, they plan to launch a new Octopus card reader with functions such as real-time reward redemption, automatic parking redemption, calling taxis through the Octopus App, and introducing a voice recognition Octopus card reader to assist visually impaired people.