BEIJING: Chinese people like to call them “fevers,” the hot trends that seem to appear out of nowhere and spread like wildfire. In recent years, China has contracted “selfie fever,” “smartphone fever” and “study-abroad fever.”
For the past few months, the country has had an intensifying case of “bike-sharing fever.”
Colourful bikes have inundated cities, jammed sidewalks, and in many cases, changed the ways in which people commute. Riders unlock them with the help of smartphone apps, ride them for as little as 0.5 yuan (7 cent) for 30 minutes, and then drop them off wherever is convenient.
The bikes are custom-made, equipped with GPS technology and brightly coloured — the most popular brands have orange-and-silver, yellow and blue fleets. Users love them for their convenience and low prices, but some commentators doubt the cheap, flashy rides make financial sense.
An Yiru, a 28-year-old producer in Beijing, says he hops on one of the bikes to save time on the last kilometre from the subway to his office, which he would have otherwise walked.
“The wheels are a blessing,” says Jia Yangyang, a 26-year-old translator. “I barely ride a bus on short journeys because I’m so fast.” Start-up owners tout the business model as “Uber for bikes.” And like the car-sharing company before them, they are raising hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital.
Mobike, one of the top-funded such firms, was launched in late 2015 by a former Uber China employee and this year secured $300 million in venture capital funding.
Its main rival, Ofo, was founded in 2014 by a Peking University alumni and first became popular on Beijing campuses. The start-up in March attracted $450 million from investors including ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing.
Ofo and Mobike have both earned the sough-after “unicorn” status, a title given to young companies that are worth $1 billion or more. At least 30 other copycats have sprouted across Chinese cities. Investors are flushing them with capital as if they are afraid of missing out on a rare opportunity, observers say.
But profits might elude these companies for a long time, analysts say. “Currently, no company is making money from it,” says online business expert Guo Tao. — dpa
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