bikesharing
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Lyft’s pink-wheeled shareable bikes will be available to rent soon
Lyft has finally given us a glimpse of its forthcoming line of shareable bikes, which the ridesharing company says will be available to rent within its mobile app in select cities “soon.”
The news comes as the $15 billion company announces the final close of its acquisition of Motivate, the New York City-based mobility startup that owns a number of bike-rental services, like Citi Bike, Ford GoBike, Divvy, Blue Bikes and Capital Bikeshare. The transaction was reportedly worth some $250 million.
Lyft brought in $600 million in fresh funding in June from backers Fidelity Research & Management, AllianceBernstein, Baillie Gifford, KKR, CapitalG, Rakuten and others.
Now that its bike deal is complete, Lyft becomes the largest bike service provider in the U.S. That’s a big leap forward for a company that hopes to have the largest dockless bike fleet in the world — outside of China, of course, where companies like Mobike have deployed millions of bikes.
As part of the deal, Lyft will invest $100 million in New York’s Citi Bike, tripling the number of bikes available to 40,000 by 2023.
Lyft launched its first fleet of scooters earlier this year in Denver, hot off the heels of scooter-mania, which saw companies like Bird and Lime garner billion-dollar valuations and complete launches all over the world.
The company says the scooters have been a success thus far. In Denver, for example, 15 percent of Lyft rides in 2018 were taken on scooters. The company has also made scooters available to rent within its app in Santa Monica and Washington, DC — a list that will undoubtedly swell in 2019.
Here’s hoping Lyft’s bike wheels are actually pink. If not, I will be gravely disappointed.
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Mobike unveils first initiatives since acquisition by Meituan, including no longer requiring deposits in China
Mobike made a roster of announcements about its bikesharing program today, including the end of customer deposits in China and full integration into Meituan Diaping’s app. The developments, its first since its acquisition by Meituan for $2.7 billion in April, are meant to help Mobike become a stronger competitor against Ofo, its biggest rival, and a slew of smaller startups in China’s heated bikesharing wars.
Mobike, which claims 200 million users, will have the chance to reach more customers thanks to its integration into Meituan’s platform. Meituan has ambitious growth plans (filed for an IPO in Hong Kong last month) and describes itself as a “one-stop super app” because of the large range of services, including dining, salon, entertainment and travel bookings, it offers. Meituan’s 310 million users were already able to pay for Mobike on the platform and will now also be able to rent a bike through the app.
Mobike also upped the ante for competitors by announcing that it will stop requiring users in China to pay 299 RMB (about $45) deposits and will refund all deposits already paid. Mobike says it is getting rid of deposits to “establish a no-threshold, zero-burden and zero-condition deposit-free standard for the entire bikesharing industry.” (Since the new policy only applies to users in China, instead of all 200 million Mobike users, TechCrunch has contacted the company for more information about how much money it is refunding).
Deposits are a contentious issue among bikesharing users. Though Mobike and Ofo claim they do not use customer deposits to fund operations, some bikesharing startups have been accused of spending deposits on operational expenses, with users complaining that it is very difficult to get their money back, even if they stop using a service or it goes out of business. The issue has resulted in Chinese lawmakers drafting regulations that require bikesharing companies to store deposits in a separate bank account so the funds are still available to return to customers even if a company goes out of business.
Another controversial issue is the large number of trashed or abandoned bikes created by bikesharing companies, with photos of “bikesharing graveyards” becoming symbolic of the sector’s excesses and unsustainable growth. To address environmental concerns, Mobike says it is launching a bike components recycling program in partnership with several companies, including Dow, China Recycling Resources and Tianjin Xinneng Recycling Resources. Called Mobike Life Cycle, the program will recycle bike components into new parts or raw materials. Mobike says it has already recycled and reused over 300,000 Mobike tires.
Mobike will also add a new e-bike that can reach a top speed of 20 km/hour and travel up to 70 km on a single charge. The company hopes that the e-bike, which will be available in China and Mobike’s international markets, will increase trip lengths. In its press statement, Mobike says most of its bikes are used for trips up to 3 km, but the e-bikes will hopefully increase that to 5 km.
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Spin wants to bring dock-less bike sharing to the US
Bikeshare programs in the US have mostly consisted of kiosks, or stations, where users can unlock a bike, take it off the rack, use it and return it once their errand or joy ride is done. Some only allow subscribers others charge by the hour. Meanwhile in China, bikeshare programs have evolved from kiosk-based systems into something else entirely. Venture-backed companies in China like… Read More
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