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People are talking about Mobike being innovators, and their business sounds like it's doing really well, but bike sharing is a concept that's been around for a
by beefsack 9y ago
People are talking about Mobike being innovators, and their business sounds like it's doing really well, but bike sharing is a concept that's been around for a while.
Melbourne Bike Share[1] was founded in 2010, though apparently the bike sharing concept was around in Europe since the 60s[2].
People suggest Melbourne Bike Share was largely unsuccessful due to mandatory helmet laws in Australia making them a bit inconvenient. I'm sure there will be idiosyncrasies in certain places which make the concept less appealing.
In saying that though, I really wish there was a service like this when I lived in Guangzhou. I think it's a great fit for very dense cities.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Bike_Share https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Bike_Share
[2]: "Runde Sache". Readers Digest Deutschland (in German). 06/11: 74–75. June 2011.
- dis-sys 9y agoThe melbourne scheme failed not because of the helmet laws, but because of its poor coverage. How many streets in inner city suburbs had those shared bikes stations for pick up/drop? Quite often you use those bikes for 10 minutes and then had to spend the next 15 minutes to find the location where you can drop it - that is after another 15 minutes spent earlier to pick up your shared bike.
- rorykoehler 9y agoThe sharing schemes in Europe and MoBike are completely different. The dockless nature of MoBike, Ofo, Obike etc is an order of magnitude game changer. I pick up a bike from below my block, ride it anywhere and just leave it there. I use it many times a day. When I lived in Europe I never once used the docked bike sharing services.
- netheril96 9y agoApple is seldom the first in anything, but it succeeds anyway for Everything Just Works™. Mobike may or may not pull off the same feat.