February 14 – UnionPay International announces that UnionPay credit card becomes accepted by all taxies in Seoul Capital Area which mainly contains Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. So far, UnionPay credit card has become accepted by all taxies in South Korean market. As Asian Games Incheon 2014 draws near, UnionPay card service has undergone further improvement in South Korea, providing cardholders travelling to South Korea and local residents more convenient payment experience in everyday spending.

Through this cooperation with KoreaSmartCard and eBCard, the areas where UnionPay credit card is accepted for taking a taxi has expanded to cover the whole South Korea from the previous Incheon, Busan, Chju, etc. Cardholders are able to make signature-based payment without entering PIN, which saves the troubles of change dispensing, inconvenient communication, transport card refunding, etc.

South Korea has become one of the tourist destinations more preferred by Chinese tourists. According to the statistic data from Korea Tourism Organization, 4.33 million Chinese tourists travelled to South Korea in 2013, accounting for South Korea’s largest group of tourist source which is over 30% of all foreign tourists travelling to South Korea. As Asian Games Incheon 2014 approaches, South Korea is expected to welcome more tourists from around the world.

As one of the overseas markets providing the most convenient UnionPay card acceptance service, UnionPay card acceptance is covering more sophisticated fields including everyday spending scenarios of local residents. Currently, UnionPay credit cards can be accepted by almost all signature-based merchants in South Korea, and UnionPay debit or credit card accepted for PIN-based payment in over 830,000 merchants. At the same time, UnionPay cards can be used for cash withdrawal in more than half of ATMs in South Korea, including almost all ATMs at subways and convenient stores. Convenient acceptance environment has made South Korea a foreign country where the largest number of UnionPay cards, totalling 7.1 million, has been issued.