Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
T-money enhances passenger convenience
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Introduced in 2004, T-money was a transportation card enabling transfer discounts. More than 30 million cards have been issued so far, and they are used 35 million times a day in Seoul on average. It is one of the most successful transportation pass systems in the world ― effectively applied in the Seoul metropolis.
Korea Smart Card, the operator of T-money is seeking further use of the card, breaking the convention of looking at ``T'' as transportation to ``touch'' and ``trust.''
``T-money is known for its use in public transportation, but we are also popular for micropayments,'' Park Gye-hyun, president and CEO of Korea Smart Card, told The Korea Times.
There are some 15,000 T-money readers installed at convenience stores, coffee shops, universities, government offices, movie theaters and even at pay phone booths.
``We want to create an atmosphere where everyone can use the card easily without hesitation,'' Park said. ``The best part of the T-money payment system is that it is fast and convenient.''
The T-money card is useful for ``micropayments'' since each transaction can be done with just a touch ― without paying and receiving money.
Still, this market, which was some 360 billion won last year, is much smaller compared to the transportation market of 4.7 trillion won.
Korea Smart Card is eying overseas expansion as well. The system was first exported in 2008 to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, where some 500 buses and 400 shops have the T-money card reader system.
``Currently, we only offer the T-money system for bus and micropayments, but we plan to expand it to ferries and taxies later this year,'' Park said. ``The city previously had a paper commuting ticket system, but wanted to introduce our system after visiting Korea and seeing it in operation.''
The system is planned to be exported to the city of Auckland later this year and two more cities in Southeastern Asia.
Park emphasized that T-money enables the combination of public transportation policy and a payment method through information technology.
He said this is a win-win system for citizens, city government and transportation businesses. ``Citizens can transfer for free while the city can have statistics of public transportation users and can use this in policy-making.''
He said the integrated Bus Management System allowed bus companies to be more public. ``Before the introduction, bus companies competed to operate long, good routes to carry more passengers, which resulted in dangerous driving in some cases. Under the new system, city government distributes revenue based on routes, the CEO said.
Seoul City and Korea Smart Card received many queries from abroad about the T-money system. ``We have consulted with Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Russia and Mexico among others. Since we are the 'operator' we have more consultations than orders,'' Park said. ``Public transportation systems are a headache in other countries, too. That is the reason why Seoul's success in converging policy and a payment system is in the limelight overseas.''
Park said it is important to blend policy into the convergence of technologies. ``Converging industries is not enough. Together with policy, convergence can have much bigger power, as T-money does,'' he said.
``Korea Smart Card aims to lead the global standard as a micropayment player, not a mere transportation fare collection system,'' Park said.