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Bike-sharing services

Bike-sharing services
The latest news, analysis and opinion on Bike-sharing services. In-depth analysis, industry insights and expert opinion.
Lime launched e-scooters in Tokyo’s busiest districts, including Shinjuku. Photo: AFP
Sharing economy

Uber-backed e-scooter start-up Lime enters Japan after Korea exit

Uber Technologies-backed Lime is entering Japan’s growing e-scooter ride market in a foray that pits the San Francisco-based start-up against home-grown Luup.

Didi Chuxing

Ride-hailing giant Didi apologises for widespread service outage

Ant Group

China’s bike-sharing survivors raise prices to try and turn a profit

Health in China

A ‘truly addictive’ ride: China rekindles love for cycling in time of Covid

A recent rise in fuel prices, coupled with coronavirus restrictions hindering commutes, plus increased government support, have lifted the popularity of two-wheeled transport in what was once known as the ‘Kingdom of Bicycles’.

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According to the China Bicycling Association, production in China in 2021 rose by 1.5 per cent, year on year, to 76.4 million units. Photo: Reuters

China’s sprawling bike graveyards

Apps

‘Bad business’: the rise and fall of China’s bike-sharing twin stars

Mobike officially halted operations of the mobile app and WeChat mini programme under its own brand last week, fully merging under its parent company Meituan.

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Sharing economy

Government warns car-pooling services for allowing drivers to profit

Hellobike and Dida Chuxing have made changes to their car-pooling platforms after the Ministry of Transport accused them of offering ride-hailing services, a legally distinct service defined as a commercial activity.

Shanghai-based Hellobike has offered a car-pooling service since 2019, but car-pooling services are legally distinct in China from ride-hailing, which is defined as a commercial activity. Photo: Handout
Sharing economy

Taxpayers foot the clean-up bill for China’s bike-sharing bust

An estimated 25 million discarded bicycles have been scrapped, dismantled and recycled, through the entanglement among local governments, bike companies, and recycling factories.

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China society

Abandoned shared bikes crying out for help creep out nearby residents

A video circulating on Weibo shows Ofo bikes asking to be helped up while piled up in an abandoned construction site.

Sharing economy

Huawei’s latest sharing economy idea is loaning out budget laptops

Huawei’s Honor is offering shared MagicBook laptops delivered straight to users’ doors during China’s national holiday.

Huawei's more affordable sub-brand Honor showcased its MagicBook Pro laptop at IFA 2020 in Berlin this month. Photo: Jamie Carter
Apps

China’s bike-sharing platforms connect with BeiDou satellite network

After the launch of the final satellite in the BeiDou navigation system, China’s bike-sharing platforms said the global network will help them to manage their fleets more efficiently.

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Dockless bikes from different platforms are seen parked on the street in the Futian district of Shenzhen, in southern Guangdong province, in this file photo from October 24, 2017. Photo: Roy Issa
SenseTime

SenseTime’s AI makes sure you park your shared bike properly

SenseTime’s new AI surveillance system is part of the Chinese government’s push to promote smart city projects

Scalpers cash in as China’s e-bike riders rush to buy helmets

Get-rich-quick opportunity arises as new law requires the country’s 300 million e-scooter riders to wear helmets amid massive shortage

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Meituan

China’s Hellobike denies removing rival Meituan’s bikes from a street

Few players remain in China’s highly competitive bike sharing market

Coronavirus pandemic

Meituan Dianping sees surge in bike-sharing, but don’t call it a comeback

Food delivery giant Meituan saw signs of an upswing at its struggling bike-sharing business, as more commuters shifted away from crowded modes of transport amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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Analysts predict the recent revival in the use of bike-sharing services across China to be temporary. Photo: Sam Tsang
Meituan

The coronavirus is bringing bike sharing back in China

Meituan’s Mobike and Alibaba-backed Hellobike are seeing longer trips, but analysts say the bike-share resurgence might not stick after the outbreak

Ofo

Troubled bike-sharing company Ofo is now a shopping app

The Alibaba-backed company is pivoting to ecommerce and offering rebates in lieu of returning deposit money

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China technology

From flip phones to smartphones: Growing up in China’s decade of tech transformation

Living in China through most of the 2010s, I look back at how far we’ve come

Customers waiting outside a Beijing Apple Store for iPhone 4S sales to start in 2012. (Picture: AP)
Sharing economy

Mobike lost more than 200,000 bikes to theft and vandalism this year

The bike-sharing company quit Manchester last year because of vandalism

Start-ups

They founded three hot tech companies, but now they’re on a country-wide blacklist

Founders of Ofo, LeEco and now Smartisan have to navigate China’s punishing debtor blacklist

Apps

Gojek gets green light for Malaysia test runs despite backlash

Critics have accused the Malaysian government of relying on ride-hailing services as a substitute for comprehensive infrastructure planning and raised concerns about the country’s road safety record.

Gojek’s impending entry into Malaysia will likely pose the biggest challenge to Grab, which took the lion’s share of the nation’s e-hailing market after it bought Uber’s operations in Southeast Asia last year. photo: AFP
Sharing economy

Hellobike plans to lead China’s two-wheeler transport market as bike-sharing rivals struggle

Shanghai-based Hellobike will offer a range of two-wheeler transport options, including traditional bicycles as well as electric bikes and scooters.

Bicycles from Chinese bike-sharing service provider Hellobike sport a blue-and-white livery. Photo: Facebook

Alibaba mulling further investment in bike-sharing start-up Hellobike

A survivor of the bike-sharing wars in China, Shanghai-based Hellobike continues to raise capital for its business transformation

Sharing economy

The story of Ofo is one of the wildest rides in China’s tech history

Ofo was once one of the biggest bike sharing platforms in the world, with a plan to capture 200 cities by 2017. But the end of the bike sharing boom hit Ofo hard.

Myanmar

Disused bicycles from oBike and Ofo help keep Myanmar children in school

Thousands of bicycles that lay in ‘graveyards’ after bike-sharing companies pulled out from Singapore and Malaysia are now being used by impoverished Myanmar children to go to school.

Photo: AFP
Sharing economy

How to travel in China on a Mobike

Cycling is one of the best ways to explore a new city. Services like Mobike allows you to pick up a bike whenever you see one, and just leave it at any destination. Best of all, the app is available in English! Get around faster Scan the QR code on a bike to get started

Sharing economy

Nearly 2 million shared bikes are now clogging up China’s capital

Beijing kicks off cleanup campaign in the aftermath of bike-sharing bust

Sharing economy

Can bike sharing survive in China?

Mobike and others raise fees to save business following collapse of the once-leading Ofo

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