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What else can you do with Bird’s app besides rent a scooter?

Answer: Pay for things.

Bird app
Shutterstock
In their quest to take over cities, electric scooter companies appear to have moved on from just city streets.

Beginning Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., users of the e-scooter company Bird can pay for things at participating local stores using their Bird app. The system works similar to other mobile pay platforms like Apple Pay, where all the user needs is a smartphone and an account with a credit/debit card attached to it.

To use Bird Pay, customers simply open the Bird app and scan the QR code, just like they would if they were renting a scooter. The charge is deducted either from Bird credit, if the user has any, or made on the credit or debit card associated with the user’s account. If the Santa Monica pilot is successful, Bird hopes to be able to roll out the feature to more users later.