Istanbulkart, which has been renewed and can be used by everyone on mobile phones with its mobile application, and can be used as a shopping, payment and information tool not only for transportation but also for many other applications, is of great importance in terms of showing how modern urbanism will make our lives easier with technology.
We asked Nihat Narin, General Manager of Belbim AŞ, one of the affiliate companies of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, what Istanbulkart mobile brings and what it will bring.
CHIP Online: Istanbulkart has become available as a payment tool in many areas apart from transportation. Can we get some information about this adventure of Istanbulkart?
Istanbul is a brand in itself. It is one of the most important, perhaps the first three metropolises of the world, with a history of thousands of years. We have an audience of 20 million living, of which 16 million are registered. Transportation is one of the most urgent and essential areas of this city. Now we need to facilitate transportation with the vision of smart cities, digitalization and technology world.
Nihat Narin: Istanbulkart has become a very meaningful instrument in this context. We transformed Istanbulkart from a transportation card into a ‘City Life Card’. We carried out a great branding work by taking the opinions of our citizens and turned it into a card worthy of Istanbul. At this point, we have 20 million cards in circulation.
CHIP Online: Can you talk about the new Istanbulkart Mobil?
Nihat Narin: Istanbulkart Mobil is a very important achievement. Almost everyone has an Istanbulkart. Traditional cards can be forgotten, lost, but the phone is never forgotten. This is how it is all over the world. Therefore, we need to catch up with technology and help our citizens catch up, too.
The digital card offered by Istanbulkart Mobil becomes a personalized card for you. In addition to the convenience it offers, it also has an economic dimension.
When you forget your card, instead of buying a new card, you can immediately load your digital card with a balance on subways, metrobuses, city lines, etc. you can use. Thus, you contribute to less import of a chip.
The use of digital cards only in transportation is not satisfactory to us. We want to use this card outside of transportation by making it smarter.
CHIP Online: Istanbulkart Mobile has been widely adopted by Istanbulites and has taken its place among the rising applications. We would also like to receive information about usage rates.
Nihat Narin: We renewed Istanbulkart Mobil in November 2021. Currently, 6 million of our citizens have Istanbulkart Mobil on their mobile phones. Being in the pocket of 6 million of 16 million registered citizens is very valuable. 2 million people actively use Istanbulkart Mobile. Between 70 thousand and 100 thousand QR codes pass through daily.
We also took our place among the top 5 most downloaded finance applications in January 2022.
These data also show how necessary Istanbulkart Mobil is. Our citizens, especially the younger generation, are very satisfied.
CHIP Online: Do you have a joint work or project with other technology subsidiaries such as BELBİM?
Nihat Narin: We have three technology subsidiaries under the roof of IMM: ISTTELKOM, ISBAK, BELBIM.
ISTTELKOM is responsible for the entire network infrastructure, ISBAK is responsible for smart cities, and BELBİM is responsible for smart payments.
We came together with our subsidiaries, which act with the vision of smart cities, technology, innovation and digitalization, and we rolled up our sleeves to produce joint projects. At this point, we want to produce innovative solutions by combining our forces under one roof so that Istanbulites can receive fast and useful service.
Our aim in this partnership is to be the architects of the smart city plan that will lead the people of Istanbul to success.
CHIP Online: Are you considering collaborations or consortia with metropolises and cities around the world? Are there any applicants for your guidance?
Nihat Narin: Our primary goal is to raise the digital experience world of the people of Istanbul to the next level. In addition, we started to provide guidance services to cities other than Istanbul.
We help them create their own city cards by creating their payment infrastructure. We have municipal cooperations that will be implemented very soon.
The infrastructure offered by Istanbulkart attracts attention worldwide.
We rely on our strength in electronic toll collection systems.
We will continue to expand innovation and digital transformation in order to catch the future today.
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