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That's a lot of coin. What makes a company like this worth investing that amount of money in? What are they doing different than all the other bike share comp

• jdavis703 9y ago
  For one, if personal mobility sharing services becomes a real estate problem (i.e. the footprint that docks or dockless bikes occupy), it makes sense that those with the smaller footprints will achieve better unit economics and be able to place their stations in more spots. Also it's way more efficient to move a bunch of scooters to a high-demand location than it is a bunch of bikes.
• aaachilless 9y ago
  The usability difference between scooters and bikes is meaningful. They fit into a totally seamless user experience that would be very difficult to manage with bikes. They’re more tamper-proof, smaller, easier to hop on and off of, easier to manage in crowds, etc. Anectdotally, Bird scooters have melded into the environment in Santa Monica, Westwood, and the UCLA campus in a way that I can’t imagine happening with bikes. Bird scooters are all over the place these days without being nearly as cumbersome as I imagine bikes would be. As a few others have noted in this thread, Bird is exploding in LA right now, and I believe it’s because of their approach to a seamless user experience. The 10% difference in usability between bike sharing and electric scooter sharing seems to make all the difference.