I realised that there are a lot of funding from apps recently and 2 really very big ones that are getting really huge and incredible is Mobike and Ofo. So I decided to update on my blog as I personally now is into an startup app and really keen to read bout news like that. I believe there are many like me might just like to know the updates. We don't need to read too much about Uber and Grab anymore as almost everyone knows about them. Ofo and Mobike on the other hand had become so big and will only become bigger and yet so many people dun even hear of them yet. And they are coming here in Sg already so watch out for their news .....
Wed Mar 1, 2017
Ofo, Chinese bike-sharing firm, raises $450 million in latest funding round
Students pose for pictures as they use ofo sharing bicycles at a campus in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, September 6, 2016. China Daily/via REUTERS/File Photo
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG Chinese bike-sharing start-up ofo said it has raised $450 million in a fresh round of funding, as the firm faces up against deep-pocketed rival Mobike in one of the hottest sectors to attract tech investors.Investment group DST Global, ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing and CITIC's private equity arm were among investors, the company said in a statement.
Ofo and Mobike are two of a growing number of bike-sharing services in China that allow users to find, unlock and pay to rent the bicycles through a smartphone app, targeting younger consumers tired of congested roads and public transport.
Strong growth in the sector saw Mobike close a $215 million funding round last month, led by Tencent Holdings and Warburg Pincus LLC.
Ofo has previously raised funds from investors including Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi and Didi.
Since mid-2015 ofo has accumulated over 20 million registered users.
One Startup Builds $1 Billion Business Out of 15-Cent Bike Rides
Bike-sharing service Ofo raises $450 million in a giant round
Bicycles of every hue now a common sight on China’s streets
Using the Ofo bike-sharing app to rent a bicycle in Shanghai.Walk around the streets of Beijing these days and the sidewalks are thronged with yellow and orange bicycles. These are the weapons of choice in one of the strangest, most colorful battles in the technology world.
Ofo, the company behind the yellow two-wheelers, just raised $450 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Orange-hued Mobike raised $300 million a month earlier. And they’re not the only two: Bluegogo and green-favoring Forever have also sprouted up over the past year to offer bicycle sharing amid the controlled chaos that is Chinese urban traffic.
The competition has grown so ferocious that the Uber-like services are foregoing an already minuscule 1-yuan (15 cents) charge many days of the week and letting people use their bikes for free. The bicycles themselves tend to be easy targets for thieves and vandals, or user-hogs who cunningly hide them to ensure availability. How all this adds up to a sustainable business model requires a vivid imagination.
“It’s like a trophy to own a big sharing internet company in China,” said Mark Tanner, founder of China Skinny, a Shanghai-based consultancy. “From a business point of view it makes no sense.”
For now, profit remains elusive. Despite the uncertainty around the bottom line, all are spending heavily on promotions and discounts in a race to build scale. And things may soon get crazier. Ofo raised money from influential backers including Russia’s DST and local car-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, famed for running Uber Technologies Inc. out of the country. The company said that its Series D round -- which also roped in big names Citic Private Equity, Matrix Partners and Coatue Management -- conferred upon the barely two-year-old startup a unicorn valuation of more than $1 billion. Ofo, whose no-frills bicycles boast a loyal following on college campuses, will use the cash to vie with Beijing-based rival Mobike both at home and abroad.
Ofo got its start as a student project at Beijing’s prestigious Peking University in 2014. Eventual PhD dropout Dai Wei and four other students explored cycle tourism before landing on bike-sharing. His Mobike arch-rival is Hu Weiwei, a former journalist who started her own outfit around the same time.
Once emblematic of China’s socialist working class, bicycles remain popular among students and urban commuters despite rapidly growing car ownership. The industry has drawn more than a billion dollars from investors betting that bikes offer a more traditional alternative to the car-hailing that prevails in urban centers.
Its advocates argue there’s enormous value just waiting to be unlocked. The mostly youthful demographic that bike-sharing services cater to are coveted marketing targets who can offer up precious data and be sold on other products eventually. A government campaign to untangle the traffic gridlock now plaguing most major cities also encourages the proliferation of bike- and car-sharing.
“If you view these companies not just as transportation vehicles but as platforms for data about users and also gateways for other services, there’s a lot of value to explore,” said Zhou Xin, an internet industry consultant at Beijing-based Trust Data. “There’s also significant demand for bikes in first and second tier cities, as the government limits the amount of cars to ease traffic jams.”
Mobike and Ofo are among the two largest of a growing crop of private bike-sharing operators. Unlike similar services operated by local governments around the world, their users find and pay for bicycles via a smartphone app and then leave them wherever they want.
Ofo alone has brokered more than 300 million rides and has more than 20 million users with operations in nearly 40 cities in China, the U.S., Singapore and the U.K., the company said Wednesday in a statement. As for Beijing Mobike Technology Co., the startup operates in at least nine cities across the country, with more than 100,000 bikes on the streets of Shanghai. It’s said it aims to stock at least 100,000 bikes in each urban center.
Both are eyeing markets in Europe. There are about 600 bike-sharing operations globally, with a market that could grow by 20 percent a year to generate as much as $5.8 billion in revenue by 2020, according to consultancy Roland Berger. Mobike, known for its GPS-equipped two-wheelers, intends to launch in Singapore this year, joining Ofo in the wealthy island state.
Uber’s debilitating battle with Didi, as well as escalating discounting in every arena from online movie ticketing to food delivery, exemplify the dangers of waging a war of subsidies to gain scale. Uber eventually called it quits, while other sectors are littered with also-rans who simply couldn’t keep up their pace of spending.
Bike Sharing in Singapore: Ofo and oBike
If you happen to come across bright yellow bicycles along the streets, they may be part of the Ofo bike sharing service in Singapore. Along with oBike, they are among the companies taking on the challenge of creating a culture of bike sharing in Singapore.
Both oBike and Ofo aim to make it easy for people to rent a bike and have launched their services for bike sharing in Singapore.
Unlike traditional bike rentals, bicycles from oBike and Ofo can be picked up and dropped off anywhere. To use the bikes, users just need to unlock them using an app. After completing their journey, users lock the bikes back and leave it wherever they are. There is no need to return the bicycles to a specific bike station.
Bike Sharing in Singapore: Using Ofo
At West Coast Park, we were immediately attracted to Ofo’s bright yellow bicycles parked close to the McDonalds.
To unlock the bicycle, we first downloaded Ofo’s app. This is available from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. To activate the app, we simply had to enter a verification number sent to us via SMS.
As Ofo is currently (as at February 2017) free of charge, there was no need to enter in any billing information into the app.
Next, we simply entered the bike number into the app. The bike number is displayed very prominent on each bicycles.
The app then returns a combination code which can be used to unlock the mechanical lock on the back wheel of the Ofo bike. Turn to the correct combination number, press a button and the bike is yours to use.
Riding the Ofo Bike
So what are Ofo bicycles like?
The first thing to note is that they are single speed bikes. There are no gear shifters to meddle about with. Don’t expect to hit top speeds on these bikes. They are functionally built for a leisurely cycle (although we did find it a bit tiring with only one gear).
Of course they do have front and rear brakes, and come with an all-important safety accessory – a bell. This is activated by twisting a grip on the right handle bar.
These bikes are as simple as they come. They reminds us of the concept of Ford’s Model T – except that they are bicycles and the colour choice is yellow not black.
Once you are done with the bicycle, simply snap the lock back on and scramble the numbers on the lock. You will also need to ‘end the trip’ on the app. You can also view your trip details over the app.
Eventually, when Ofo does start charging for their service, it will cost $0.50 per trip.
oBike Bike Sharing Service
oBike’s bicycles are white with basket in front. It works in a similar manner except that the bike is unlocked by scanning a QR code found on the bike.
As the oBike service is already chargeable, you will also need to enter in your credit card details and put down a deposit through the app before you can use the bikes. The cost for oBike usage is $1 per half-hour.
Another difference with the oBike service is that you can use the app to view a map to locate the closest oBike bike. This lets you track down a bike wherever you are. You can also place a reservation for the bike.
Battle of the Bike Sharing Services in Singapore
Both Ofo and oBike are interesting introductions to Singapore’s biking cycling landscape. Ofo has also been launched in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. They are among the companies vying to be the next Uber of bicycles. Furthermore, the Land Transport Authority also intends to pilot a bike-sharing scheme involving around 2,330 bicycles based on the ‘traditional’ bike-sharing model where bikes would need to be rented and returned to designated bicycle stations.
All this bodes well for users who will have more transportation choices – and options to go for a leisurely cycle around West Coast Park.
31st October 2016
Ofo, Mobike cycle-sharing apps raise more than $200 million
Tencent Backed Bike-Sharing App Eyes to Go Oversea
In China’s internet warzone, there’s a road map for success: find a rich acker, get lots of money, burn it to buy market share.
The latest chapter of that playbook is being written by two young entrepreneurs each offering an update on a former icon of China’s communist party -- the bicycle.
In one corner is Dai Wei, 25, whose Beijing Bikelock Technology Co. cycle-sharing startup, known as Ofo, won about $100 million backing in September from investors including the venture fund backed by Xiaomi Corp. founder Lei Jun and Didi Chuxing, the ride-hailing giant that just beat Uber Technologies Inc. out of China. The funding is said to have valued the startup at $500 million
In the other is Hu Weiwei, who received similar funding days later for her Beijing Mobike Technology Co. from a group including Tencent Holdings Ltd., the nation’s biggest internet company and, ironically, a long-term backer of Didi.
This is the trial by fire of China’s internet landscape, where alliances change in days and startups bleed billions of dollars offering freebies to get customers, only to merge months later so they can take on the next upcoming competitor.
“Tencent and Didi each picking a different winner makes the competition much more unpredictable and interesting,” said Cao Yang, Beijing-based analyst at internet consultant IResearch. “It really comes down to which founder can adapt faster and leverage resources better.”
Bike-sharing is hardly new. There are about 600 such operations globally, with a market that could grow by 20 percent a year to generate as much as $5.8 billion in revenue by 2020, according to consultancy Roland Berger.
Most, like Paris’s Velib or London’s so-called Boris Bikes are run or set up by the local government, often with corporate sponsors, and bikes are available from racks at set locations. What differentiates Ofo and Mobike is that users find and pay for bicycles via a smartphone app and then leave the vehicle wherever they want.
Each company is targeting a different market. Mobike has gone for high-end branding with bikes that cost as much as 3,000 yuan ($440) to build and have snazzy orange wheels, solid-core tires and satellite navigation. Ofo is targeting students with bright yellow two-wheelers costing only about 250 yuan that don’t have GPS and rent for just 1 yuan per hour, typically half that of Mobike. Beijing’s public bikes are free for the first hour and then 1 yuan per subsequent hour.
Mobike locates its vehicles via an integrated GPS. Ofo -- so-named because the word looks like a bicycle -- does so by tracking the smartphones of its riders and sending a code to unlock the bike.
“These guys all think they can be Amazon, hoping to burn money first and then make money later,” said Rawen Huang, Hong Kong-based founder of Petrel Capital, which invests in China’s internet space. “Will we look back in five years’ time and say ‘Oh my, I can’t believe they got funding at that valuation’? Probably.”
In the capital’s electronics heartland of Zhongguancun, where high-tech heavyweights like Lenovo Group Ltd. rub shoulders with startups and malls crammed with gadgets, two of Ofo’s yellow bikes stand in the hallway outside an apartment, which Dai has converted to a makeshift office.
“In the early stages of a company, expanding is more important than defending,” says Dai, echoing the insights imparted by his mentor Cheng Wei, founder of Didi. “The faster you use your money, the more efficient, the more money you raise, the stronger you become. Then you control the market.”
It’s a strategy that helped Didi beat off more than 30 rivals. At the height of its battle with Uber, both companies were burning through $1 billion a year, mostly to subsidize fares. Didi now handles more than 11 million rides a day across about 400 cities. While Didi has yet to become profitable, Dai said Ofo is already making money.
Bespectacled and soft spoken, Dai gained the support of Didi’s early investors Wang Gang and GSR Ventures’ Allen Zhu. The Peking University PhD dropout founded Ofo with four other students, ditching their original project on cycling tourism to focus on bike-sharing.
Wang was instrumental in helping Ofo find a “big tree to lean on,” securing not only financial backing from Didi, but also potential access to its 300 million users.
A man rides on a Beijing Mobike’s bicycle in Beijing.
A 30-minute bike ride away, in a technology incubator called 768 Creativity Shejiyuan, Hu Weiwei landed an even more powerful ally. Tencent’s WeChat instant messaging app has more than 800 million users and already integrates things like Didi’s car-hailing service and JD.com Inc.’s shopping function.
The 34-year-old former journalist said the two companies are starting to “coordinate on certain technology aspects.”
In a second-floor office down a dark passageway, next to a communal toilet, Hu speaks in a low octave, punctuating her key message: “The fact that Tencent is investing in us shows that we share the same philosophy about products and technology.”
The investment from Tencent, along with Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital, couldn’t have been more timely. Following Didi’s announcement it would back Ofo, users like Shanghai-based Mike Huang began unsubscribing from Mobike to get back their 299 yuan deposits on concern the company would shut down.
“It just shows you how important the big companies are for the survival of startups in China,” said Huang, an entrepreneur who has a women’s health app. He resubscribed after hearing about the Tencent investment. “Chinese internet companies are still in that phase of burning cash to win market share and the brutality of competition is even worse than Silicon Valley.”
Ofo and Mobike will need more than discounts to win users, they need bikes.
Mobike said it has about 30,000 bicycles spread across the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, which have an estimated combined urban population of more than 74 million. It aims to stock at least 100,000 bikes for each city by year-end and expand to other cities.
Compare that with the more than 66,500 public bikes offered by the public transport corporation of Hangzhou, a city of about 8 million.
Ofo says it has more than 85,000 bikes, mostly on university campuses, and expects to take its service to other places in China. Both rivals are eyeing markets in Europe.
The ride-sharers are trying to reverse a decline in cycling in China, which spent the past two decades promoting cars. China had 670 million bikes in 1995. By 2013 it had 370 million.
For some Beijingers, the billion-dollar fight between Ofo and Mobike comes down to which happens to be more convenient.
“I don’t care whose bike it is, I’ll use one if I spot one and feel too lazy to walk,” said Guang Geng, who works in the Zhongguancun area. “Honestly I just tell them apart by color.”
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