Hong Kong has long set the pace with its Octopus Card which seamlessly moves most of its 6 million residents around the territory daily.
The card has now made a quantum leap forward, making itself redundant by leaping onto the mobile phone.
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A bit of history, I covered the ubiquitus nature of Octopus near 10 years ago in a story I wrote for SCMP:
The plastic fantastic
The banks and their cards are feeling the pinch, but the rise and mutation of their smart plastic cousins means you don’t have to wince every time you reach into your pocket.
