Chinese
bike share graveyard a monument to industry's 'arrogance'
Just two
days after China’s number three bike sharing company went bankrupt, a
photographer in the south-eastern city of Xiamen captured a bicycle graveyard
where thousands have been laid to rest. The pile clearly contains thousands of
bikes from each of the top three companies, Mobike, Ofo and the now-defunct
Bluegogo.
At first
glance the photos vaguely resemble a painting. On closer inspection it might be
a giant sculpture or some other art project. But in reality it is a mangled
pile of bicycles covering an area roughly the size of a football pitch, and so
high that cranes are need to reach the top; cast-offs from the boom and bust of
China’s bike sharing industry.
Once hailed
as “Uber for bikes”, China’s cycle hire startups allowed users to unlock
GPS-enabled bikes with their smartphone, and drop them off anywhere without the
need to park it at a dock.
Bluegogo’s
bankruptcy last week sparked questions about the future of dockless bike
sharing in China, amid concerns there are too many bikes and insufficient
demand. In an open letter apologising for his missteps, Bluegogo’s chief
executive said he had been “filled with arrogance”.
Customers
are charged just pennies per 30 minute ride, but competing companies have
flooded cities with bikes to ensure cycles are always available. The top two
firms have each raised more than $1bn (£750m) in funding.
Shanghai
currently has 1.5m shared bikes on the streets, and despite its population
being three times greater than London, that number far outstrips the 11,000
Santander Cycles peppered throughout the UK capital.
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