Mobike pedals into India as China’s bike-sharing start-ups look for new markets
India, with the second-biggest population on the planet at around 1.3 billion people, looks set to become the next battleground for China’s bike-sharing companies, which are facing growth constraints at home
Chinese bike-sharing start-up Mobike will launch services in India later this week, seeking to expand in another mega-market amid increased competition and a crackdown by local authorities on the number of bikes on the road in major cities at home.
Starting this Thursday, the Tencent-backed company’s iconic orange bicycles will appear in Indian cities including New Delhi, Bangalore and Ahmadabad, according to a company spokesperson.
India, with the second-biggest population on the planet at around 1.3 billion people, looks set to become the next battleground for China’s bike-sharing companies, which are facing growth constraints at home after Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, barred the country’s more than 70 bicycle-rental companies from putting more new bikes on the roads to avoid chaos amid widespread traffic congestion.
A spokesperson for Alibaba-backed Ofo, Mobike’s major competitor, said it had already clocked 1.1 million rides in India by end-March this year after launching in November 2017. Ride-hailing platform Ola, India’s answer to Uber, rolled out its own bike-sharing services in a number of Indian university campuses in December. Mobike declined to comment on the size of its fleet in India or the investment involved.
