Azernews.Az

By Alimat Aliyeva

Apple users in Korea will soon be able to pay for public transportation using their iPhones and Apple Watches, transit officials announced on Monday — marking a long-awaited development for Apple Pay in the country, Azernews reports.

Tmoney, Korea’s leading transportation card provider, confirmed on its website and social media channels that “Tmoney will be available on iPhones and Apple Watches.” However, a specific launch date for the service has not yet been disclosed.

This announcement comes more than two years after Apple Pay launched in Korea in March 2023. The lack of compatibility with public transit systems had been one of the most frequently cited limitations of the service, especially in comparison to Samsung Pay, which has supported transit payments since late 2015.

Transit card operators previously pointed to several challenges in integrating Apple Pay into Korea’s public transport system — including the cost of upgrading to EMV contactless terminals, the payment standard required by Apple, and transaction fees owed to Apple, which are reportedly higher than those of domestic providers.

Once the integration is live, users will be able to use Apple Wallet on their iPhones and Apple Watches to pay for subway and bus fares across Korea — a significant step forward in expanding digital payment options for Apple users.

In a related development, Tmoney also announced on Monday a pilot program for a tagless payment system on Seoul’s city buses. The system allows passengers to board and exit buses without tapping their transportation cards.

Instead, users who install the Tmoney mobile app and enable Bluetooth on their smartphones will have their fare automatically processed when boarding and disembarking. The pilot program will launch in October, covering approximately 580 buses on 36 routes.

Importantly, passengers using the tagless system won’t incur additional fees when transferring to other buses or transit systems that don’t yet support the feature.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the pilot will focus on bus routes connected to subway stations to test whether transfer discounts between buses and subways are correctly applied.
The city also plans to roll out the tagless payment system on subway lines 1 through 8 by the end of the year, which would represent a major modernization of Seoul’s already advanced transit infrastructure.

With over 10 million iPhone users in Korea, Apple Pay’s expansion into public transit could significantly increase its adoption, especially among younger, tech-savvy commuters. Moreover, Korea’s move toward tagless, Bluetooth-based fare systems signals a potential shift away from traditional card-tapping, aligning with global smart city trends seen in places like Singapore, London, and Tokyo.