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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2017 vs 2016: Breakdown of top 10 new unicorns reveal shifts in China’s tech sector
The number of Chinese unicorns—startups with more than a $1 billion valuation—are growing so fast that later we might have to change the term into “dragons” in the future. The country now has 55 unicorns becoming the second-richest country in unicorn companies, followed by India and the UK. This is partly due to the ever-growing activity of […]
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Didi continues pivot into two wheeled mobility with beta test of electric bike rental
Chinese ride-hailing behemoth Didi is beta-testing its electric bike rental service in South China, a person with knowledge of the matter told TechNode. Didi is said to have won the initial support of at least three cities. The firm is expected to develop its own bike rental brand, or potentially a separate app, with an access […]
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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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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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ofo pedals their way into four European countries on World Car Free Day
The globalization competition between ofo and Mobike, two of China’s top bike rental giants, is reaching a feverish pitch. Instead of revealing the entrance to overseas markets one by one, ofo announced today that it will be launching in a cluster of four European countries of Russia, Czech Republic, Italy and Netherlands on the September […]
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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 […]
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Mobike announces support for Apple Pay, iPhone iOS 11 camera to accelerate globalization drive
The bike rental war between Mobike and its rival ofo is still ongoing in China, with no end in sight. The pair has been waging an all-out war in terms of bike quantity and technology on and beyond their home turf. Now they set their sight on user experience. Mobike announced yesterday that it has […]
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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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Beijing joins list of cities saying no to new shared bikes
China’s dockless bike rental market is fairly young given that major players in the market like Mobike and ofo weren’t born until very recently. The sector has witnessed breakneck development over the past two years in China, but now the fast-evolving industry is reaching saturation at a speed faster than we expected, at least in […]
