Electric scooter and moped hire startup Bird Rides Inc. today extended its services into mobile payments as the company seeks a path to profitability.

Called Bird Pay, the service allows users to use the Bird app to pay for purchases at the point of sale, scanning a QR code to link to the merchant before the app prompts for a payment amount. The service is currently being tried out in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, although the company did not disclose how many businesses were participating in the trial.

The service is not only being pitched as an easy way for customers to make payments but as a benefit for business users by encouraging Bird users to shop there. Bird itself claims that Bird Pay was created in direct response to requests from local businesses, since 58% of all Bird riders head to or end at local businesses each day.

“An early insight that emerged shortly after introducing Bird in Santa Monica was that it had the potential to not only allow people to avoid the chore of circling a block to find parking resulting in congestion and frustration, but it could also foster a more direct connection between people and local businesses,” Travis VanderZanden, chief executive officer of Bird, said in a blog post. “Store owners in the community often tell me, ‘Birds outside bring business inside.’”

The broader question for the service, however, is whether it can find scale in a market full of existing mobile payment solutions, most of which struggle to find an audience. Companies have tried before and failed and as Protocol noted, “getting Americans to use QR codes is going to be a tougher sell than preloading some cash.” The only possible grace is that Bird riders have to scan QR codes to rent scooters in the first place, meaning that they are at least familiar with the idea.

QR codes as a payment option are wildly popular in China, where just about anything — even buskers and beggars — can be paid by scanning a QR code linked to WeChat or AliPay. That they’re yet to take off in the U.S. could also reflect too many companies providing different services as well. The likes of Apple Pay and Samsung Pay have gone with NFC payments without widespread support from business.

For Bird, it’s an experiment that may and may not work. Having raised $623 million to date, its most recent a $75 million round on a $2.5 billion valuation in January, investors will be looking for the Bird to make a profit eventually. Payment services could be one way the company could do so.

Photo: Bird