You probably wouldn’t blink twice if you saw a bright yellow bicycle lying unguarded on a city street. But you might do a double take if you saw 500 of them — which is what residents of Cambridge can expect when Chinese bike-sharing company Ofo rolls out its hugely popular scheme across the city next month.
The launch marks the first time Ofo, or more formally Beijing Bikelock Technology Co., will hit UK streets. Similar roll-outs took place in Singapore and Silicon Valley in February, in the first wave of global expansion for the Beijing-based firm. Ofo is the largest bike-sharing operator in China, with an estimated 3 million daily users across 34 cities.
Similar to London’s Boris Bikes, or Santander Cycles, riders will be able to hire an Ofo bike whenever they want, no matter the time of day. With one key difference: Ofo does away with the fuss of finding a docking station, instead letting users pick them up and dispose of them in the place and time of their choosing.
“We are the first non-docking, bike-sharing platform in the world,” Dai Wei, one of Ofo’s founders, tells WIRED. “You can find a bike anywhere and park it anywhere.”
Ofo, named because the letters resemble a bicycle, has been dubbed the “Uber for bikes” – a more-than-metaphorical comparison, as its investors include Uber partner Didi Chuxing.
To hire one, riders first download the app onto their smartphone, then use it to locate the nearest bike. When they get to it, they key in the bike’s number, which is located prominently on plates beneath the handlebar and seat. The app then sends a four-digit code to open the lock that’s affixed to the back wheel. And off you go.
To return the bike, all you need to do is find a spot where you can legally park it, flip the kickstand and scramble the lock. Ride done, and all for a flat fee of £0.50 per ride (or one yuan per hour in China) — regardless of the time or distance covered.
For a company that purports to encourage healthier living, Ofo had an unusual beginning: over fried chicken in KFC. Dai and four classmates from Peking University were enjoying a mid-afternoon snack in 2014 as they bounced around ideas for a business. They spent the next year examining the feasibility of renting out cars and conducting cycling tours, before settling on an idea: bike-sharing, with a twist. “One and half years later, I think everything’s got better and better,” reflects Dai, 26.
With plans to expand to more than 200 Chinese cities by the end of 2017, and cooperative tie-ups with existing bike-sharing platforms such as Santander Cycles in the works, Dai is confident ofo will break even this year.
“I think it’s quite a good idea,” Huw Walters, a final-year medical student at the University of Cambridge who spends up to 40 minutes cycling to school and work every day, tells WIRED. “Although I think that most people who live in Cambridge and cycle a lot already have bikes. But it could be useful for tourists.”
Herein lies a problem, however. Most of the town’s attractions, like King’s College, the Backs and the Bridge of Sighs, lie within a compact city centre. “There’s nowhere enough cycle parking in the city centre,” says Al Storer, a committee member of the Cambridge Cycling Campaign, a volunteer-run organisation that seeks to improve cycling in the city.
Storer also wonders about how safe the Ofo bikes will be if they’re left out in the streets overnight — something that both he and Walters wouldn’t do. “Although this says a lot about how gentle a city Cambridge is, that bike theft is the leading crime,” Storer adds.
Ofo, it seems, will take these challenges in its stride, judging from its experiences in China. Last September, Ofo received a boost when it secured $100 million in funding from firms including Didi, the company that edged Uber out of China.
Yet where ofo goes, Shanghai-based Mobike isn’t far behind. In China, the two startups compete on numerous fronts: for users’ attention (Ofo’s bikes are bright yellow while Mobike’s wheels are a chili red); for market share (Ofo’s is 55 percent versus Mobike’s 40 percent); and for investors (Ofo has the support of Didi, the Chinese Uber, while Mobike is backed by Chinese internet giant Tencent).
Dai, however, dismisses the suggestion of a rivalry. “We have a different model to theirs,” he says. “They work like Toyota or Tesla, to design and produce bikes. We’re more like Uber — we connect bikes.”
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
