Why only a couple of bike shares work?

The Bicycle share schemes have seen an immense success in some cities and flopped spectacularly at the others – what is it that makes or breaks a bike share? A set of iconic images from the year 2017 were put up wherein it showed brughtly colored fields amidst the meadows that were filled with flowers in full bloom. However, ones that got filled with hundreds and thousands of 2 wheelers, that were stacked end to end and thus, came to be known as the China’s bicycle graveyards.

These fields were primarilu the remains of a countrywide boom-to-bust bike share scheme and it had captured the imagination of the world for its innovative use of the technology which involved a GPS and a smart digital lock as well. The digital lock innovation was certainly a game changer for China. There is no denial that China was once regarded as the Kingdom of bicycles, much before the time when there came a rapid growth in the automobile industry. 

The bike share schemes came up with a cost effective alternate solution that will assist them to travel in cars, and thus, ease traffic and other kinds of congestion. One of the most well-known bike share companies, namely, Ofo had always wanted to present a technology driven transport solution that could get through the needs of the people wanting to travel short distances. They have further aimed to match up the number of existing bikes that were in the service with that of the number of people who would require them. The scheme did hit the investors who have been seeking green transport solutions for China. Ofo was not the only one to gain interest over here. Its competitors such as the Bluegogo and Mobile did gain a substantial interest from the investors and the venture capitalists. 

These firms did start off with healthy balance sheets, and there was no regulatory framework beneath them. These bikes might, thus, be gradually introduced and integrated onto the existing public transport system in China. There was a sudden influx of what amounted to the millions of bikes inundated urban centers of China. Besides, there has also been a rise in the copycat bike share companies, all due to the lack of proper regulations. 

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