Chinese bike-sharing startup Ofo adds ecommerce features to app

Chinese bicycle-sharing firm Ofo released a new update for its app, adding ecommerce features with cash-back offerings and discounts.

Photo credit: walkingsky / 123RF

Along with the added functionalities, the beleaguered startup also redesigned its homepage to resemble a dedicated online shopping app or a lifestyle platform, Technode reported, citing Chinese media.

In Apple’s App Store, the startup renamed its app to Ofo Bike-sharing – Platform-wide Cash-back Offering, Save Money While Shopping. The update was met with scorn from Ofo’s Chinese users, accusing the startup of false advertising.

One user wrote in the store’s review section that upon opening the app, “there is immediately a pop-up asking users to convert deposits to cash-back rewards.”

Those who choose to participate in the cash-back program have to buy products from ecommerce sites such as JD.com, Tmall, and Taobao and order food from Ele.me to get a specific amount of money back for each purchase.

In December 2018, Ofo saw 8 million people in a virtual queue hoping to get their deposits back, which ranged from US$15 to US$30, amid rumors of the startup’s imminent demise.

Dozens of people were also in line at Ofo’s Beijing headquarters, which stretched from inside the startup’s offices all the way to the streets, to ask for refunds.

Then, it was reported that since February 2019, Ofo users who hadn’t requested a deposit refund have found a new option in the Ofo app called “Discount Mall.”

Users who have not submitted a refund request can choose to convert their locked-up cash deposits into tokens, or digital currency, which can then be used to purchase a range of around 40 products at the time.

Once a leader in the bike-sharing space worth over US$2 billion, Ofo started exiting numerous markets starting 2018. After being hit with lawsuits for unpaid bills and fighting in a highly crowded market, a court in Tianjin, China said in June last year that Ofo “has basically no assets” and could not pay its debt.