Han Ximin

    ximhan@126.com

    RENTAL bicycle operators are trying to grab market share by putting more bicycles on Shenzhen’s streets, which is heating up the rental market.

    At a news conference Tuesday, Beijing-based Mobike announced that the number of its bikes in Shenzhen will triple to 100,000 before the end of the year. Shenzhen is the fourth city in China that Mobike is targeting. It now has 30,000 bicycles operating in Shenzhen.

    In another news conference, Bluegogo announced that it will start business in China from Shenzhen. It will expand the Chinese bicycle rental market at a speed of “a city every 15 days.” Shenzhen will get 30,000 Bluegogo bicycles before yearend.

    Another operator, ofo, which initially targeted university students, will also expand its operation into commercial and business areas. Local rental bicycle operator, Shenzhen Funbike Science and Technology Co., recently put 1,000 Funbike bicycles in the market and the total will reach 30,000 before the end of the year.

    “The app-based Mobike rental bicycle service is popular in Shenzhen because of its great convenience, which allows users to pick up and park the bikes in any public location and has solved bicycle maintenance problems,” Hu Weiei, founder and CEO of Mobike, said.

    Li Gang, CEO of Bluegogo, said rental bicycle services are facing unprecedented opportunities in the coming year or two. The company has its own supplier and app research team, and can produce 3-5 million bicycles a year. Bluegogo called for fair competition among rivalries instead of defaming competitors through despicable methods such as defacing the QR codes of their bicycles. Last weekend, the QR codes on some Mobike bicycles were found defaced by paint. Bluegogo was suspected to be the troublemaker, according to Li.

    “Bluegogo is actually a victim and some of our bicycles which were put on trial use were also damaged or defaced. We are cooperating with police to investigate,” Hu Yufei, vice president of the company, said.

    Hu called for establishing an alliance among bicycle operators to advocate fair competition and promote the industry.

    Shenzhen has beefed up its effort in rental bicycle service by building bicycle stands and a rental service network.

    Each district, except Guangming and Dapeng, has a rental bicycle service. The network has 798 bicycle rental stations and 22,954 bicycles.

    “The rental bicycle service, either promoted by government or operated by private companies, should complement each other as they have different operation modes and share different bike users between commuting, entertaining and exercising,” said Chen Jiajun, director-general with Bike Green Commuting, at the 2nd China Cycling Conference in Shenzhen last week.

    Shenzhen transport commission is considering setting up a unified bicycle rental service platform to improve the efficiency of bicycle use.

    According to the latest plan, the city will pilot a slow traffic system in Futian CBD and expand the program to Shenzhen Bay and Houhai in Nanshan.