Next time when you meet a Chinese person, ask where they are from. The geographical boundary between northern China and southern China is not precisely defined, but there are rough and approximate stereotypes on Northerners and Southerners’ height, language, and what they eat. At the annual ChinaBang Awards this year, Grace Gu, principal at ZhenFund (backer of ofo), […]
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Tencent ups the bike-rental ante with largest funding round so far
Mobike today announced that it has raised over US$600 million in Series E, the largest ever financing round in the bike-rental industry. This landmark round, putting the company at a valuation of between US$2 billion and US$3 billion (in Chinese), was led by existing investor Tencent and joined by Sequoia China, TPG, and Hillhouse Capital, among […]
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US firm says ofo leading bike rental race in China
The public spat between Tencent’s CEO Pony Ma and GSR Ventures managing director Zhu Xiaohu over who is the most popular bike rental platform has added fuel to China’s already heated bike rental industry. The discussions between investment moguls make it difficult for onlookers to dig up into the correct figures in the burgeoning market. Even […]
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“Anything can happen”: Ofo and Mobike investors talk about bike-rental war
On March 17, investors in both Ofo and Mobike took the stage at ChinaBang Awards 2017 to discuss the future of the bike-rental industry. Grace Gu, principal at Ofo-investor ZhenFund, and Xu Ying, Executive Partner of Mobike-investor Vertex Ventures talked about where they see the bike war heading. “We cannot say if there will be a merger between these […]
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China releases first national guidelines for bike rental industry
After several tragic deaths and countless headaches for municipal authorities caused by the bike rental boom, the first guidelines for regulating bike rental for the whole of China have officially been published (in Chinese). The “guiding opinions on encouraging and regulating the development of bicycle rental” were signed by 20 state departments after the draft was […]
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Mobike’s data strategy emerges on Baidu Maps
Mobike’s recently-announced data sharing strategy has just made a prominent appearance: Mobike – and Ofo – bikes are now visible and unlockable via the Baidu Maps app. The latest update of the app allows users to log in with their mobile numbers to hire bikes from the two main hire companies. The latest version of […]
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Exclusive: Bluegogo VP confirms leaving the company months ago, staff waiting for salary for months
Bluegogo is going bust. Staff from the bicycle rental company broke the news yesterday that the company is dissolving and salary payments will be delayed until February 10, 2018. TechNode’s Chinese sister site has confirmed that the salaries are indeed delayed and that the company is in a poor state (in Chinese). Even more shocking is that […]
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Shanghai just says “No” to more dockless bikes
Shanghai transportation authorities jointly announced on August 18 that no more new bikes should be placed in the city, taking a firmer stand in its moves to crack down on bike rental services, our sister site TechNode Chinese is reporting. “Upon the announcement of this regulation, all bike-rental companies should place a halt on introducing any […]
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Didi app embeds ofo to provide flexible solution for short trips
After weeks of rumors, Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing announced today it has added bike-sharing service from ofo to its app. DiDi users will have direct access to ofo’s bright yellow bikes in the app. As a major investor of ofo, DiDi has poured a combined hundreds of million USD in three financing round of the […]
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Ofo teams up with largest bicycle producer Fushida
The race is still on in China’s bike-rental sector. Bike-rental startup ofo and the world’s largest bicycle producer Fushida recently entered into a strategic partnership that will see the latter manufacture 10 million bicycles for ofo every year, local media is reporting (in Chinese). Fushida chairman Xin Jiansheng expected the company’s annual production capacity to top 20 […]
