Didi announced today that it is expanding its cooperation with Bluegogo. “Beginning [today], in addition to repairing and redeploying some Bluegogo bikes, Didi will start replacing a certain number of broken Bluegogo bikes with its own, Didi-branded bikes in Chengdu, China’s most bike-friendly city,” the company said in a press release.
The ride-hailing giant announced the cooperation with the bankrupt bike-rental startup Bluegogo early in January. Once China’s third largest player in the bike-rental space, Bluegogo, found itself in deep debt towards the end of last year. Poised to enter the country’s already crowded bike-rental market in China, Didi has bought up a part of Bluegogo’s business. Just last week, Didi announced the launch of its bike rental platform in Beijing and Shenzhen.
Under the agreement with Bluegogo, Didi will launch a comprehensive, multi-brand bike-rental platform within its app, which integrates ofo, Bluegogo, and other partners, as well as Didi’s own-branded bike-rental service. Didi users can use Bluegogo bikes on the app with no deposit required. Users also have the option to convert Bluegogo deposits, privileges and app top-up values into Didi bike and car ride coupons.
Although Didi has partly takeover Bluegogo’s operation, “the Bluegogo brand name, deposits, debts and other related properties are retained by Bluegogo.”