New tailor-made bikes by Ofo Inc are seen in Beijing, June 30, 2017. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
(ECNS) -- While Chinese bike-sharing companies expanding overseas were hugely popular in some foreign cities during the first half of 2017, some got the cold shoulder in others due to reasons such as adversely affecting local traffic, Beijing Youth Daily reports.
Since the beginning of this year, Mobike, Ofo, Bluegogo and Baicycle have all been tapping opportunities in overseas markets such as Europe, the U.S., Japan and Singapore.
Earlier this year, Bluegogo became the first bike sharing brand to make an overseas impact when it launched bikes and set up a service team in the U.S., saying its bikes would even be produced in the country in future.
Data from Mobike showed it launched over 6 million shared bikes in more than 150 cities in four countries, and received an average of more than 25 million orders on a daily basis. So far, the company has entered Singapore, Manchester, Salford, Fukuoka and Sapporo, with the aim to cover more than 200 cities by the end of the year.
Ofo bikes appeared in the U.S., Singapore and the UK, with the company also setting up a team in the U.S.. Baicycle, on the other hand, entered Japan, reaching agreements with many local key universities, which allowed parking spaces to be shared between different institutions.
Nevertheless, challenges remain. According to earlier media reports, some Ofo bikes were opposed by local companies in Singapore, which accused it of engaging in unfair competition through offering services at an extremely low price but failing to pay fees for the use of public spaces. Besides, with hot weather and convenient public transport, bikes are not popular in the city.
Early this year, authorities in San Francisco wrote a letter to Bluegogo CEO Li Gang, stressing more attention be paid to public road rights, as well as requiring the company to conform to existing laws and prevent potential conflicts with franchise agreements.
A co-founder of Dropbyke, a Spanish bike sharing company, said: "The numbers of bikes launched by Mobike and Ofo sound crazy to us, for it is unlikely to put 1,000 or even 10,000 bikes on roads at once without meeting any trouble in European and American cities." He said Chinese bike sharing companies will meet strict restrictions in overseas markets.
In addition, both bike sharing companies and users must conform to local traffic rules, which may be quite different from what is required in China.
