China's Mobike eyes Singapore launch

[weijian]

Major issues with bike-sharing apps

Two days after its formal launch in Singapore, Chinese-owned bike-sharing app Mobike still has some major issues to iron out.
The New Paper tried the three bike-sharing platforms - Mobike, ofo and oBike over two days.

http://digital.asiaone.com/digital/news/...aring-apps

[YMPL]

I have seen the bikes parked next to Bus stop after used. There are more issues to be ironed out, I guess.

[weijian]

Shanghai Set to Spin New Curbs on City’s Bike-Sharing Operators

(Beijing) — Shanghai is looking to introduce more hurdles for the city’s bike-sharing operators, with new draft rules potentially banning children under 12, the heavy set, and those who are very short or tall, in what has become an already fierce marketplace battleground.

http://www.caixinglobal.com/2017-03-25/101070119.html

[opmi]

I like the anyhow parked models... docking stations is a dumb idea...no last mile...

East Coast Town Council a bit too anal on this.

[Big Toe]

Quote "East Coast Town Council a bit too anal on this."
After reading the article on East Coast Town Council asking the bikes to be removed, it maybe due to 2 reasons.

1. The Bikes are commercial and is using public space.
2. The users park the rental bikes indiscriminately.

Point one is debatable as the bikes are free or almost free to use. As I do not see how they could sustain without more funding rounds, it is doing a social good rather than a commercial activity. MObike is probably the most sensible of the lot, charging the highest deposit and usage. Even then I don't see how they can even cover a fraction of their start-up/running cost just from rental fees. It also reminds me how aggressive businesses/start-ups are nowadays, gone are the days where a sensible plan to profitability is key. (Snap chat is another fast growing company that is richly valued, growing fast and losing money even faster.)

Point two, we, consumers and users in Singapore as a whole has not reached a level civic mindedness that is near developed nation. Indiscriminate parking is extremely common. There is no fine and thus many users abuse the system(what's new?). More so with rental bikes since there is no sense of ownership. And even though the bike sharing scheme is new, there is a lot of damaged bikes out there already(especially ofo i think, which requires no deposit, correct me if I am wrong). Seen a number in the north that looks relatively new but with broken parts here and there.

[specuvestor]

^^Agree. Anyhow park model makes sense for the individual. Doesn't make sense for other stakeholders. It should be at least near some bicycle parking lots unless we want to look like some other cities. We even have parking lots right under HDB flats.

[specuvestor]

(Bloomberg Gadfly) -- 
Talk about FOMO.

As much as we may think venture capitalists are crazy to keep pouring kerosene on the global ride-hailing wars, a quick look at the shenanigans on China's bike-share battlefield makes you wonder where the insanity stops.

Matrix Partners, Citic Private Equity Funds Management Co., Macrolink Group, Warburg Pincus LLC, Sequoia Capital Operations LLC, Didi Chuxing and even Temasek Holdings Pte all now seem to be suffering bouts of fear of missing out, and have decided to throw money at companies that don't actually seem to have business models.

They've even given birth to a unicorn, after Ofo convinced investors to fork out $450 million. Convinced is the verb Bloomberg News reporter Lulu Chen used, and it seems entirely appropriate. I'd love to see the slide decks that Ofo and rivals including MoBike have been showing investors to charm them out of more than $1 billion.

-snip-

Worse for the bike-sharing companies is that their business is not like Uber and Lyft Inc. Those companies' massive advantage over taxi operators is that they don't own inventory or hire drivers: they're just agents matching drivers and riders, taking a cut in the process. (Read Leila Abboud's column on why this may change.)

The bike companies, though, are spending buckets of money to buy and distribute inventory in addition to the kind of back-end systems Uber and Lyft have built to track supply, demand, usage and payments. Their decision to forgo docking stations means riders can leave the bike anywhere they please, compounding the problem.

It's a rental business where customers don't have to return the product or keep it in good condition; they're merely required to stop using it at a random place and time of their choosing. This characteristic should worry U.S. municipal chiefs, because these startups are expanding overseas.

And since it's rental, the inventory needs are higher because the companies must have enough bikes on hand to meet peak demand -- they can't just recruit new inventory like the ride-share operators. Then they must spend again to retrieve and repair dumped bikes.

-snip-

[weijian]

if u earned 20x on a previous successful investment, there is margin to lose a few times i reckon (so its all about position sizing).

The pscychology involved isnt too different from someone who won first prize in lottery, and then continue to make small sized bets after winning.

[weijian]

How Hype and Greed Are Ruining Chinese Bike-Sharing (i.e., Mobike and Ofo)

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-hype-...rey-towson

[Big Toe]

It is a strange strange world.
Alibaba is one of the best and brightest company china had to offer and previously it had to travel far and wide to get investors.
The rise of alibaba greatly benefited Softbank & yahoo being the earlier investors. No one bothered about alibaba in their home country when they started out and was showing great potential.

Fast forward 2 decades and we see investors chasing after a bike sharing business that has absolutely no clue how to sustain itself. A case of stupid money killing a viable business(traditional bike business) due to hype. Just for comparison sake, snap chat probably has a higher chance of some form of monetary success in the future rather than these bike sharing companies.

But there could be a chance one of these companies find a magical formula of being able to generate ad revenues per ride both on the mobile app as well as paid display ads on the bike itself. or that the bike is able to direct the rider to certain destination for a product or service. But I would not bet on it. they should already be having paid display ads on the bike and the app but they are probably too engrossed in battle over who burns money faster than to further develop this opportunity.

Lets wait and see how patient the investors are and how it all ends up.