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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Gold bike startup looks for buyer as users demand deposits back
Crowds of people descend on the Coolqi bike hire scheme’s head office in Tongzhou to get their deposits back as Coolqi founder and CEO Gao Weiwei (高唯伟) tells our sister site that the company is not bankrupt, but that he has been removed as CEO (in Chinese). The company’s WeChat payments have been frozen and it is […]
Ofo seeks 1 million RMB in damages for defamation against social network Maimai
Bike rental startup ofo is filing a lawsuit against social networking platform Maimai (脉脉) for slander and defamation after a user on the website claimed ofo staff were engaged in graft. An expose of the so-called ofo internal corruption practices was first found in early May on Maimai, where a post of one user talking […]
Three keys for Asian startups to go global
We are seeing Asian startups expanding globally. This year, most notably Chinese bike rental companies Mobike and Ofo have expanded to Asian, North Americna and European markets. Chinese smartphone manufacturers Huawei and Xiaomi have been also successful in expanding to Southeast Asia and India. So what are the keys for Asian startups to go global? […]
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 […]
Report shows bike rentals and ride-hailing are solving China’s traffic problems
Despite their immense popularity, bike rentals in China are giving daily headaches to local governments for users’ illegal parking, vandalism, and traffic violations. But bike-rental is seeing some hope in fixing its battered reputation. A report co-published by Amap, Tsinghua University, Alibaba Cloud, ofo and other industry researchers shows that traffic congestion across the nation is in […]