Mobike, China’s major bike-rental company, today launched a new model of its smart bike called “New Lite.” It features a minimalist design, longer lifespan, and lighter weight. The all-new model comes with a stronger bike frame which is 50 percent stronger than European standards and weighs 15.5 kilograms, making it the lightest mainstream bike rental […]
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[Podcast] China Tech Talk 04: Exclusive interview with Florian Bohnert, Mobike’s Head of International Expansion
This week we switch up the format a bit to do our very first interview! Continuing our discussion of bike sharing, we invited Florian Bohnert, Head of International Expansion at Mobike, to talk about Mobike, bike sharing, and their plans inside and outside China. Questions How did you come to China/start working at Mobike? How […]
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6 of China’s bike rental companies have shuttered in the last 5 months
At least six bike rental companies in China has shuttered during the last five months. After Bluegogo and Coolqi, the latest to close shop was Xiaoming (小鸣) which followed a similar scenario. Staff is claiming that the company’s controller Deng Yonghao has misappropriated funds and is nowhere to be seen. The company’s CEO Kai Lushi […]
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Mobike’s May 1st travel report shows what you can do with bike-rental data
Bike rental company Mobike has released a report of its user data from the Labor Day holiday weekend, providing one of our first pictures that can be built from bike rental data and an idea of how the company wants to reveal what it knows. “May 1st Little Long Holiday Cycling Report,” generated by the Mobike […]
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[Infographic] The differences between Mobike and Ofo
As the ride-hailing wars have disappeared, the latest war is bike-sharing (more like bike-rental), with Mobike and Ofo leading the pack. In case you weren’t sure how exactly they are different, WakeMeChat has made this handy infographic: Mobike’s technology seems to be a bit better, but how either company is actually making money is still a […]
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Has China’s sharing economy finally jumped the shark?
Bikes, bikes, and more bikes. China’s streets have been invaded by bike rentals of every hue. More and more Chinese entrepreneurs are sparing no effort to jump on the sharing bandwagon. Now, when you walk around the streets or hang around shopping malls, there’s a high chance that you’ll come across a slew of shared […]
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[Updated] O2O bike-rental deposits in China may not be as secure as users think
You must have noticed the boom bike-rental companies in China as an increasing array of rainbow colored bikes mushrooming on streets across the country. Endless financing rounds from big names like Tencent, Didi, and Foxconn have been injected into one or another of the startups that involved in a heating field. Despite the initial “wows” […]
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10 bikes in 16 minutes: Bike-rental race revives flagging industry
Editor’s note: This was originally a two part report by Li Siyi and Jiang Xiaochuan for Tencent Finance. It has been translated and further edited for clarity and style by Linda Lew. In winning the bike-rental “arms race,” the number of bikes on the street has become the critical factor. China’s largest bicycle manufacturing hub has […]
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Are China’s bike-sharing platforms really part of the sharing economy?
China’s O2O market has seen quite a few companies doing interesting things, some succeeding, some failing. The latest hot vertical is bike-sharing. According to the China’s bike sharing industry mini-report by China Channel, Mobike (backed by Tencent and Foxconn) and Ofo (backed by Didi and Xiaomi) are clear market leaders amongst growing competitors. Founded in January 2015, the […]
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8 questions about Chinese tech we will see answered in 2017
In the tech industry, new innovations are constantly supplanting old ideas and seemingly stable companies can find themselves facing unexpected challenges. However, the trends we saw started in 2016 posed questions that have yet to be answered. Here are eight of them we think will be answered in 2017. 1. Can Alipay effectively deter the aggressive rise […]
