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Sharing Economy Sees Rapid Growth in China

That is not for mountain biking.
It is for the last-kilometre journey from one's home to metro station, or from metro station to one's workplace.


I do understand. I've traveled a bit.

Any reason normal cycles cannot do the same?

I'm a cyclist by the way, so it bugs me to see these monstrosities.
 
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Mobike's secret to leading the bicycle pack
By ZHANG XIAOYU and YAN WEIJUE

| China Daily | Updated: 2017-03-27


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Workers at a production line of Mobike in Hengyang, Hunan province, inspect bicycles one last time before releasing them for shared use in cities. [Peng Bin/For China Daily]


Bike-sharing service provider Mobike has rolled out a series of tweaks to make its bicycles lighter and more comfortable to ride.

"The bike is constantly getting cooler and lighter, to meet the growing needs of our users, of whom 80 percent are the post-'80s and '90s generation," said Xu Hongjun, general manager of Mobike's manufacturing base in Wuxi, Jiangsu province.

The company has chosen Beijing and Shanghai to introduce new machines in tens of thousands. Notable improvements include lighter bikes (weight down by 3 kg to 23 kg), an adjustable seat as well as a basket, and disc brakes at the rear for greater control.

According to Xu, each fleet of bikes is custom-produced to suit the city and climate where it will be introduced. In Beijing, for example, the bikes use cold-resistant batteries, and tires with deeper tread to give better grip on icy roads in winter.

Bikes in Wuxi, a rain-prone eastern Chinese city, have extended mud guards on both front and rear tires to protect riders from splash back.

These tweaks have not come at the expense of classic features that have attracted many of Mobike's customers, such as its easy-to-use V-shape frame, dust-proof paint, airless tires, and magnesium alloy wheels. The GPS-equipped smart lock also remains, which is key to Mobike's online-to-offline business model.

Charged with constant development and innovation, Mobike's Wuxi production line is in high demand. Not only does it have to be able to produce enough bikes to match the ever-growing demand of the market, but it has to maintain the high quality of end-products that made the company a success so far.

Such demands on the production line are not a problem for the moment, according to Mobike founder Hu Weiwei, who revealed in a meeting with Premier Li Keqiang earlier this year that the Wuxi manufacturing base is capable of producing 14,000 units per day.

The manufacturing base was just a two-story factory in Wuxi's Hongshan town a year ago, but today it consists of two buildings taking up nearly 30,000 square meters. It also serves as Mobike's R& D center, applying for and receiving 30 technology and design patents such as the smart lock and magnesium alloy wheels.

Without the base, much of Mobike's core ambitions would never have been realized and its future not as bright. This integral part of the business is what Mobike CEO Wang Xiaofeng calls the company's "core competence".

"Many people may misunderstand the manufacturing sector in modern ways; they assume it is a place where workers assemble things with a straight face," Wang said. "They couldn't be more wrong, there are a lot of technical details in it. If an internet company underestimates the importance of manufacturing and the supply chain, it will lose everything."

Mobike is also in negotiations with Wuxi authorities to further expand its base as it expects demand to continue to grow.

In just two short years since the new public bike-sharing system was introduced, the market has been flooded with millions of bicycles. There are an estimated 3 million public bikes operated by 29 different brands and service platforms across dozens of cities, according to statistics from the association of the bike industry in Tianjin, the country's largest bicycle manufacturing base.

Mobike, however, has managed to stand above the rest and become a clear market leader with 3.1 million active monthly users and a 72.5 percent market share as of December, according to a report by Trustdata. It leaves ofo in a distant second position with a 21.8 percent market share, and all other brands combined with less than 10 percent share.
 
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Shared bicycles seen in SW China's Kunming
(Xinhua) 10:54, April 06, 2017

According to a report from Beijing-based BigData Research, by the end of 2016, there were 18.86 million users of shared bicycles, and the number is expected to expand to 50 million by the end of this year.

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Ctizens use shared bicycles in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 5, 2017. (Xinhua/Hu Chao)

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A man rides a shared bicycle in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 5, 2017.

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A woman locks a shared bicycle in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 5, 2017.

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A staff member of Ofo, a bike-sharing company, arranges shared bicycles in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 5, 2017.

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Shared bicycles are seen in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 5, 2017.

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A man prepares to leave after unlocking a shared bicycle in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 5, 2017.

According to a report from Beijing-based BigData Research, by the end of 2016, there were 18.86 million users of shared bicycles, and the number is expected to expand to 50 million by the end of this year.

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Looks like bike sharing is also available in the Tier 3/4 cities.
This is a good development.

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Chinese 'bike wars' to break out in UK
China Daily, April 8, 2017

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Workers fine-tune a Mobike at a production line in Hengyang, Hunan province.

China's famed "bike wars" may soon be fought on foreign shores, as Bluegogo and Mobike compete with fellow stand-free cycle hire company ofo in the British market.

Cycle hire startups are big business in China. Around 30 companies control tens of thousands of bikes in at least 35 Chinese cities. The two largest, ofo and Mobike, recently secured $450 million and $300 million in funding, respectively.

Already locked in a battle for market share across China, the startups now have London in their sights. Elsewhere in the UK this month, Beijing Bikelock Technology's bike hire business ofo is launching a pilot bike-hiring scheme in Cambridge. Mobike is reportedly interested in launching similar projects in Birmingham and Manchester.

The Sunday Times recently reported Bluegogo and Mobike were looking at London.

Both London and Birmingham already have bike-hire schemes. The Chinese services differ in doing away with docking stations. Users of the bikes offered by the Chinese companies are free to pick up a cycle wherever they find one and leave it wherever they want, using a smartphone app and a code to deactivate and activate a built-in lock.

The capital's transport authority, Transport for London, has expressed interest in the new technology.

TfL's head of strategy and outcome planning, Lilli Matson, said: "We are always keen to talk to companies to explore advancements in technology and discuss new ideas, and have spoken with a number of companies, to understand their plans."

A spokesperson for ofo said: "We have had brief discussions with TfL about how our scheme works in China and other markets and they are interested in hearing how our trial works in Cambridge. Our primary focus is ensuring the Cambridge trial is a success. We will potentially look to enter other areas later."
 
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Apr 08, 2017
Bike-Sharing Latecomer Youon Seeks to Be First to Go Public
By Liu Xiaojing and April Ma

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Two-wheelers of several bike-sharing companies crowd a street in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on March 19. Youon Bikes, a newcomer to the booming nascent industry, is the first Chinese bike-sharing company to seek permission for an initial public offering. Photo: Visual China


(Beijing) —Youon Bikes has become the first of China’s horde of bike-rental firms to receive a green light to go public this year, though it faces fierce competition as a latecomer in a crowded sector.

Based in Jiangsu province, Youon has focused mainly on selling and managing city-run bike-rental systems, with fixed return docks distributed on major roads. These city systems have begun to be overtaken by private bike-sharing services, which allow riders to pick up and leave bikes almost anywhere in a city.

When private bike-sharing became an investment frenzy in late 2016, Youon hopped on the bandwagon, launching similar services with its yellow and blue two-wheelers in 10 cities.

Though it lags far behind private bike-share leaders Ofo and Mobike in ridership, the company is planning to raise nearly 600 million yuan ($87 million), or 25% percent of its shares, within six months in an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

But in its transition from a fixed-station, municipal bike-rental provider to a competitor in the fast-growing leave-anywhere bicycle market, it faces scrutiny from regulators who fear a decline in the company’s traditional public-service function, according to a securities regulator statement.

Youon has been required by regulators to re-examine its future business model and determine whether its new business will compete with or replace its existing one.

In an updated version of the company’s prospectus published last month, over 300 references were made to the buzzwords “bike sharing” — a phrase mentioned only 10 times in the original 2015 version. A paltry 0.05% of the firm’s earnings are brought in from private bike-sharing, according to the updated prospectus.

The company was in talks to raise funds for its private bike-share division in March, but the plans were terminated within a month after the industry in general came under fire for obstructing roads and sidewalks with their sheer numbers and often careless riders.

Market hype has mounted around bike-sharing, which has attracted billions of dollars in venture capital investment and induced long-running manufacturers such as Phoenix and Forever to leverage their brands in the game.

But enthusiasm builds and fades fast on the volatile secondary stock market, and as the first bike-share company to go public, Youon’s prospects are uncertain. Bike-maker Phoenix saw its shares triple last year when the company announced it was entering the business, but they have since fell back to their original level.

Stocks for bike component-makers have also begun to see declines as authorities begin considering rules to oversee the poorly regulated area and city residents voice frustration with the unruly industry.

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Youon works pretty much like Taipei's UBike with fixed station scheme.

It has upsides and downsides. Upside is easier management for the company. Downside is, you need to find a station to return the bike, which limits your travel destination options, and also, if you are unable to find a station nearby and keep the bike, then, it will continue to burn money.
 
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China’s bike-sharing firms test the waters in US market
By Li Ning (Xinhua) April 10, 2017

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People ride shared bikes along the Chang’an Avenue of Beijing, capital of China on March 10, 2017. Beijing claims to have over 200,000 shared bikes. (Photo by People’s Daily Online)


China’s emerging bike-sharing operators have begun to test the waters in several US states, demonstrating China’s innovative ability to the citizens in the country half a world away.

In China, once called a “bicycle kingdom”, shared bikes have become the newest battlefield for global capital, with large amounts of investment flowing into the billing-on-time bike-rental mobile applications.

Major service providers of this emerging industry are currently seeking to expand overseas market for scale effect.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Bluegogo, a Beijing-headquartered bike-sharing start-up, has raised $58 million in a funding round.

It is now testing water in San Francisco, California by offering 200 blue bikes in the city. Bluegogo said that the company is currently negotiating on market access with another 5 cities.

In addition, Ofo, the company behind the yellow two-wheelers, and Orange-hued Mobike have also made forays into the US.

Both of the two Beijing-based companies displayed their products on the “South by Southwest” exhibition held in Austin, Texas this March.

Many Chinese people living in North America are excited about the news, saying a chance to try Mobike has finally come. They hope the service could enter their cities as soon as possible.

Ofo noted that their participation in the exhibition was aimed at expanding the business in the US market. As early as last December, the company announced a plan to start a trial operation in Silicon Valley and other US cities.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, on March 21, paid a visit to Ofo headquarters in Zhongguancun, a technology hub in Beijing. Claiming himself to be a cycling lover, Cook rode a yellow bike, saying the startup has changed the public’s transportation way.

Ofo has 5 million daily active users and sees over 10 million orders in one day, said the company’s CEO Dai Wei, adding that the yellow bikes are now available in Singapore, the UK and the US markets.

The brilliant idea of the shared bikes originated in China, according to Cook. It is reported that Ofo hopes to ship about 50,000 bikes in around 10 US cities by July this year.

Mobike’s orange-hued bicycles have become a staple of Chinese sidewalks since it started formal operations last year. According to a Bloomberg report, Mobike has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars from backers including Tencent Holdings Ltd., TPG Capital, Temasek Holdings and Foxconn Technology Group.

The startup officially started services in Singapore on March 21, its first overseas destination.
 
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China’s bike-sharing firms test the waters in US market
By Li Ning (Xinhua) April 10, 2017

FOREIGN201704101008000396471956695.jpg

People ride shared bikes along the Chang’an Avenue of Beijing, capital of China on March 10, 2017. Beijing claims to have over 200,000 shared bikes. (Photo by People’s Daily Online)


China’s emerging bike-sharing operators have begun to test the waters in several US states, demonstrating China’s innovative ability to the citizens in the country half a world away.

In China, once called a “bicycle kingdom”, shared bikes have become the newest battlefield for global capital, with large amounts of investment flowing into the billing-on-time bike-rental mobile applications.

Major service providers of this emerging industry are currently seeking to expand overseas market for scale effect.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Bluegogo, a Beijing-headquartered bike-sharing start-up, has raised $58 million in a funding round.

It is now testing water in San Francisco, California by offering 200 blue bikes in the city. Bluegogo said that the company is currently negotiating on market access with another 5 cities.

In addition, Ofo, the company behind the yellow two-wheelers, and Orange-hued Mobike have also made forays into the US.

Both of the two Beijing-based companies displayed their products on the “South by Southwest” exhibition held in Austin, Texas this March.

Many Chinese people living in North America are excited about the news, saying a chance to try Mobike has finally come. They hope the service could enter their cities as soon as possible.

Ofo noted that their participation in the exhibition was aimed at expanding the business in the US market. As early as last December, the company announced a plan to start a trial operation in Silicon Valley and other US cities.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, on March 21, paid a visit to Ofo headquarters in Zhongguancun, a technology hub in Beijing. Claiming himself to be a cycling lover, Cook rode a yellow bike, saying the startup has changed the public’s transportation way.

Ofo has 5 million daily active users and sees over 10 million orders in one day, said the company’s CEO Dai Wei, adding that the yellow bikes are now available in Singapore, the UK and the US markets.

The brilliant idea of the shared bikes originated in China, according to Cook. It is reported that Ofo hopes to ship about 50,000 bikes in around 10 US cities by July this year.

Mobike’s orange-hued bicycles have become a staple of Chinese sidewalks since it started formal operations last year. According to a Bloomberg report, Mobike has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars from backers including Tencent Holdings Ltd., TPG Capital, Temasek Holdings and Foxconn Technology Group.

The startup officially started services in Singapore on March 21, its first overseas destination.
There arent many US cities where you can safely ride a bike,not a good idea.
 
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There arent many US cities where you can safely ride a bike,not a good idea.

Probably correct for many places in the US, but there are still some well-guarded and rich areas that are safer. It is also not surprising that they start from California where Toyota Prius once had made an entry.
 
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Foldable e-bikes hit roads amid China's bike-sharing frenzy
Xinhua | Updated: 2017-04-12

HANGZHOU - As bike-sharing takes China by storm, one company has entered the industry with a new product -- the foldable electric bike.

Zhejiang Linju Smart Technology Co., the electric bike's maker, said it has released 400 e-bikes since March in the city of Jinhua, Zhejiang province, where the company is based.

An e-bike can go up to 20 kilometers per hour and, when parked, can be folded to cover as little space as a piece of A4 paper, according to the company.

The e-bikes need to be parked at designated bays where they can be charged, and batteries can be fully charged in just 20 minutes, the company said.

To use the bikes, one has to press a button at the station and then scan a QR code with a mobile phone. It costs 2 yuan (about $0.3) for an hour, and 20 yuan for a day. No deposit is needed.

Since last year, a flood of bikes has returned to the streets of China -- formerly known as the Bicycle Kingdom -- thanks to the development of Internet technology enabling riders to unlock and drop off public bikes with their mobile phones.

Bike-sharing has been welcomed in many Chinese cities beset by urban ills such as pollution and traffic gridlock. But people who are used to riding electric bikes, particularly in the south of the country, have hoped to see e-bikes shared too.

"I have been using the e-bike sharing service since the first day it was launched. It takes more than 20 minutes to reach the office, about six kilometers away," said Li Jian, a local resident. "It gives me a comfortable ride, even on bumpy roads."

"We will put 40,000 e-bikes on the streets of Jinhua by September 2018," said Chen Qiutian, general manager of the company, citing an agreement it signed with the government.

"There will be e-bikes in the city center and most residential communities, with a station every 150 meters," Chen said.

Each e-bike is equipped with a GPS transmitter to guard against theft.

The company has set a long-term goal to release e-bikes in the provincial capital of Hangzhou this year, before it expands nationwide. The target is 150 million e-bikes in 20 cities by 2021.

@cirr , @onebyone , @terranMarine , @xunzi
 
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Bike-sharing industry booms in SE China’s Shenzhen
CGTN
Duration: 2:03 mins.
Published on 14 Apr 2017

The bike-sharing industry has snowballed across China in recent months. Millions of shared bicycles have suddenly appeared in the country’s first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
 
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Foldable e-bikes hit roads amid China's bike-sharing frenzy
Xinhua | Updated: 2017-04-12

HANGZHOU - As bike-sharing takes China by storm, one company has entered the industry with a new product -- the foldable electric bike.

Zhejiang Linju Smart Technology Co., the electric bike's maker, said it has released 400 e-bikes since March in the city of Jinhua, Zhejiang province, where the company is based.

An e-bike can go up to 20 kilometers per hour and, when parked, can be folded to cover as little space as a piece of A4 paper, according to the company.

The e-bikes need to be parked at designated bays where they can be charged, and batteries can be fully charged in just 20 minutes, the company said.

To use the bikes, one has to press a button at the station and then scan a QR code with a mobile phone. It costs 2 yuan (about $0.3) for an hour, and 20 yuan for a day. No deposit is needed.

Since last year, a flood of bikes has returned to the streets of China -- formerly known as the Bicycle Kingdom -- thanks to the development of Internet technology enabling riders to unlock and drop off public bikes with their mobile phones.

Bike-sharing has been welcomed in many Chinese cities beset by urban ills such as pollution and traffic gridlock. But people who are used to riding electric bikes, particularly in the south of the country, have hoped to see e-bikes shared too.

"I have been using the e-bike sharing service since the first day it was launched. It takes more than 20 minutes to reach the office, about six kilometers away," said Li Jian, a local resident. "It gives me a comfortable ride, even on bumpy roads."

"We will put 40,000 e-bikes on the streets of Jinhua by September 2018," said Chen Qiutian, general manager of the company, citing an agreement it signed with the government.

"There will be e-bikes in the city center and most residential communities, with a station every 150 meters," Chen said.

Each e-bike is equipped with a GPS transmitter to guard against theft.

The company has set a long-term goal to release e-bikes in the provincial capital of Hangzhou this year, before it expands nationwide. The target is 150 million e-bikes in 20 cities by 2021.

@cirr , @onebyone , @terranMarine , @xunzi

I have to say the rent e-bikes are really small, heavy and slow. I prefer to buying beautiful speeds-shift MTB. :p:
 
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China's first unattended bike depository starts operation
By Sun Wenyu (People's Daily Online) 16:02, April 17, 2017


China's first unattended bike depository opened for business at Tianjin University of Technology and Education on April 16. The depository is an 8-meter-high cylindrical steel structure with a diameter of 8 meters. A total of 120 bikes can be deposited in the structure, though their rims must be between 20 and 26 inches across in order to be accommodated. The depository is equipped with an ID card reader to ensure safe and speedy service.



China's first unattended bike depository opened for business at Tianjin University of Technology and Education on April 16. The depository is an 8-meter-high cylindrical steel structure with a diameter of 8 meters. A total of 120 bikes can be deposited in the structure, though their rims must be between 20 and 26 inches across in order to be accommodated. The depository is equipped with an ID card reader to ensure safe and speedy service.


FOREIGN201704171604000249688561780.jpg

China's first unattended bike depository opened for business at Tianjin University of Technology and Education on April 16. The depository is an 8-meter-high cylindrical steel structure with a diameter of 8 meters. A total of 120 bikes can be deposited in the structure, though their rims must be between 20 and 26 inches across in order to be accommodated. The depository is equipped with an ID card reader to ensure safe and speedy service.


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This is one very good idea.

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