Brief: Another Chinese cycle sharer shuts shop due to stolen bikes

Photo credit: kirahoffmann.

The news:

• 3Vbike has become the latest of China’s multifarious bike-sharing services to shut down because most of its bicycles have gone missing.
• The majority of the Beijing-based startup’s bikes have been lost or stolen. Wu Shenghua, 3Vbike’s founder, said that he had spent over US$100,000 of his own money on purchasing around 1,000 bikes after a funding round managed to raise just US$14,700, The South China Morning Post reports.
• Apparently, the startup had hoped to rely on its WeChat page and social media connections with users in order to keep track of its bikes, rather than developing a dedicated app.

Why it matters:

• 3Vbike’s failure follows last month’s closure of Chongqing-based bike sharer Wukong. That company’s founder blamed the shutdown on its inability to secure quality bicycles like those used by its larger competitors.
• The biggest players in the Chinese market include Tencent-backed Mobike and Alibaba-backed Ofo. These companies and their smaller rivals typically use mobile apps that require users to register and scan QR codes to check bicycles in and out of service.

Source: The Global Times.

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