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 […]
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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 […]
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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? […]
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Ofo launches in US capital, hopes to conquer US market within a year
Ofo, China’s leading bike rental company, announced October 10 its launch in Washington, D.C., following Seattle and Massachusetts. The fast-expanding firm will deploy 400 of its yellow bikes over the course of its first week, as the local government only allows 400 bikes on the streets during the “demonstration stage.” The local regulator appears to be extra […]
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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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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 […]
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Top 15 apps you need for living in China
Say goodbye to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and welcome your new favorite apps. Here is everything you will need to navigate your China life. 1. Communication: WeChat (微信) The app to rule them all, WeChat is the very definition of indispensable in China. This is where you will connect with your friends, communicate with your […]
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Bike-rental firms confirm in-app balance refundable, but still not easy
Five bike-rental firms made it clear that users can get back their in-app balance, following their statement weeks ago that bike-rental deposits are secure and are totally refundable, local media is reporting. Bike-rental firms including Mobike, ofo, Bluegogo, and UniBike made the statement at a conference hosted in Beijing yesterday by the China Consumers Association […]
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China Tech Talk 26: The Uber China Mafia with Chenyu Zheng
Some call Uber’s China foray a failure but looking at the DNA of the company, its values of radical ownership and operational focus have reshaped entrepreneurship in China. This week, Matt and John talk about the lasting impact Uber has had on the entrepreneurs and their startups since they exited China. Links Chenyu Zheng: Did Uber […]
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Tier 3 failure shows bike-rental ain’t that easy
Chinese tech media is aflutter this morning after news last night that Kala, an O2O bike-rental company, went out of business after only 19 days of operation. In those 19 days, the company, in cooperation with the Putian government (a Tier 4 city in Fujian province), were only able to recover 157 of the 667 bikes […]
