Mastercard Teams With Ubirider to Expand Mobility-as-a-Service

Mastercard is working with Portuguese mobility platform Ubirider to expand its transit services.

The partnership, announced in a news release Tuesday (Jan. 17) will leverage Ubirider’s Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform Pick, creating more efficient and sustainable digital payment and ticketing for transport operators.

“The management of public transport systems varies from country to country, from city to city, and even between operators,” the release stated. “However, there is a common thread between almost all public transport operators: All of them struggle to manage and integrate several technological platforms into their operation.”

That includes management of schedules, communicating information to the public, issuing tickets, accepting payments, and issuing receipts and invoices, according to the release.

Ubirider’s Pick platform combines these functions into one digital environment, reducing costs, saving time, and improving efficiency, the release said.

The platform also offers contactless payment technology that “transforms a smartphone into a simple payment terminal.”

The partnership comes as a number of European cities are embracing contactless, open-loop travel.

Unlike their closed-loop counterparts, open-loop payment systems don’t need an additional card or pass to ride, which means travelers can easily hop on and off metros, trams and buses using a near-field communication (NFC) contactless card or mobile wallet.

Transport for London (TfL) was the first to debut an open-loop system for buses a little more than 10 years ago. Since then, the service has expanded to the entire TfL network, with other cities worldwide following in the intervening years.

In the Netherlands, the OVpay open-loop system went live in the Hague last year before launching in Amsterdam in December.

Born from a collaboration between the country’s public transport providers, the goal is to launch OVpay across the country’s interconnected public transport systems this year thus creating the world’s first nationwide open-loop ticketing system.

Until that day comes, the OVpay app, currently in beta, functions as a mobile wallet for travel, with users able to select their payment card and review past trips.

Earlier this month, China’s Alipay+ began offering travelers from Hong Kong an easier way to visit mainland China via the AlipayHK app, allowing riders a contactless way to pay for subway rides in the city of Shenzhen.

“As the demand for travel between the mainland and Hong Kong remains strong and cross-bound activities begin to normalize, we expect to witness the wide adoption of AlipayHK on the Chinese mainland, where Alipay+ solutions have already been adopted by millions of merchants that are ready for the return of international travelers,” said Venetia Lee, general manager of Ant Group’s greater China international business.

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