ofo will upgrade its locks which “snap open with single touch”

On August 22, ofo announced it has completed the R&D of the brand new smart lock supporting NFC payment and began mass production. The new locks will be released in October. Users can use their electronic devices with NFC function to open immediately ofo bike’s lock, the first smart lock supporting NFC payment in the world.

By then, ofo will be the first bike-sharing platform supporting NFC payment, offering users two ways of unlocking the bikes: one is QR code payment adopted by the market, another NFC payment. In the near future, ofo bike users can experience new way of unlocking bikes when they put smart devices, like Xiaomi smart phones, supporting NFC payment near the locks.

On August 14, Beijing metro system announced it would support NFC payment across the board. Prior to this announcement, the public transportation system of Shenzhen, Guiyang, and Chengdu told the public that NFC payment would be adopted. An insider said this move by many cities will popularize NFC payment.

NFC, an abbreviation of Near Field Communication, is a set of short-range wireless technologies with high frequency, allowing electronic devices to exchange data by contactless peer-to-peer data transfer. NFC is mainly used between two electronic devices, usually portable devices such as a smartphone, to establish M2M communication.

Currently the mobile payment market is monopolized by QR code payment. This payment approach captured the market in a short term because of its low cost. However, NFC payment, equivalent to QR code payment, has advantages in data transfer, security, and user experience.

First, efficiency of data transfer. As a smartphone touches a lock, NFC enables the off-line information within the lock to send to the phone and vice versa. It is more efficient and can send more data than QR code. Second, security. The NFC modules are imbedded in locks and cannot be faked by a copy or replacement. Also, security measures such as two-way identification and data encryption parallel financial security level. Third, user experience. Currently, QR code payment takes several steps to complete a deal, including unlocking the screen, opening an app, clicking and scanning the QR code, and waiting for the signal, yet NFC payment skips these steps and unlocks the bike when a smartphone nears the lock.

This article originally appeared in Netease Technology and was translated by Pandaily.

Click here to read the original Chinese article.