China’s fast-expanding bike-sharing startups ofo and Mobike both expanded to Singapore earlier this year, but it turns out that the local bike rental operator oBike is winning the local game. Ofo officially launched its service in Singapore this February and saw a surge in the number of users, making it the fifth most downloaded app […]
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ofo announces $866 million funding round led by Alibaba amid cash strain rumors
ofo raises $866 million in latest funding round led by Alibaba
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Mobike vs ofo: The race for the world’s bike rental market
It is almost two years since Mobike co-founder Hu Weiwei put around 50 bicycles on the streets of Shanghai and drove away. Ofo had a similar beginning, spreading out shared bikes on Beijing’s university campuses. This is how China’s dockless bike rental economy was born—from moves that could easily be branded as crazy. Today, bikes […]
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China Tech Talk 50: The best of China Tech Talk’s first year, part 1
This week, John and Matt take a look back at 1 year of podcasting and pull out the best part of the best episodes. This is part 1 of 2. Links 04: Interview with Florian Bohnert 10: Influencers in China & the future of brands with Elijah Whaley 15: Baidu ain’t that bad with Kaiser […]
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Mobike co-founder: “Profit is not the most important goal for us for now”
At the Summer Davos Forum in Dalian, Hu Weiwei, co-founder and president of Mobike, took to the stage (in Chinese), dispelling rumors of a merger with ofo and explaining that they are not yet seeking profitability. Consolidation in the bike rental industry Hu Weiwei said that the biggest beneficiaries of the Didi and Uber war were […]
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China’s bike rental consolidation begins with reported Mobike acquisition of Unibike
Tencent Tech (in Chinese) is reporting that China’s top bike rental startup Mobike has recently completed the acquisition of smaller player Unibike, citing people familiar with the matter. The source didn’t specify the sum for this acquisition but pointed out that Mobike is also an investor in their RMB 100 million (around US$ 14.6 million) Series A. “The […]
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Ofo in talks to raise new financing of more than $1 billion
Chinese bike rental company ofo is in talks to raise new financing of more than $1 billion, Reuters is reporting. Ofo’s co-founder Yang Pinjie, now based in the Moscow, told Reuters that the amount of financing may exceed $1 billion, but refused to disclose that what banks were involved in the talks. September 22nd was World […]
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[Updated] Mobike jumps on hongbao bandwagon with “Mobike, mo’ money”
Mobike announced yesterday (in Chinese) that their app will now include the option to ride for hongbao (红包 or “red envelopes” in English). Similar to Pokemon GO, users can “hunt” for Mobike red envelope bikes (摩拜红包车). After riding one of the “Bonus Bikes,” as the company calls them, for at least 10 minutes, users are then […]
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Updated: Alibaba rumored to deepen involvement in bike-rentals with upcoming $1 bln Hellobike investment round
Updated 23 Jan 2017: TechNode Chinese has reached out to Hellobike, Fosun Capital and Hellobike’s early-stage investor GGV, but neither has confirmed the news. Chinese bike rental firm Hellobike (哈罗单车) is going to complete $1 billion worth of round from Ant Financial (an affiliate company of Alibaba Group), Fosun Capital, and some other existing investors, people familiar […]
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One app to unlock all bikes gets locked out by ofo and Mobike
A company that promises to aggregate almost all of China’s hire bike companies’ services into one app has seen the door access to the big players’ bikes . The app, called Quannengche (全能车 “Omni ride”—our translation) was released by Shenzhen Qianhai Point to Point Technology Co. Ltd (深圳前海点点科技有限公司) in May, its latest update was July […]
