Bike-sharing company OFo announced its largest ever injection of capital last week. It received 450 million dollars from a trio of private investors and, in the process, became the first bike-sharing company to be worth more than 1 billion dollars. Ofo has more than 20 million users in nearly 40 cities in China, Singapore and the UK.
Other bike-sharing services, just like OFo, are now being rolled out across China's major cities. You find a vacant bike, scan its QR code, then the bike is yours. "It's really convenient and cheap. You can park the bike almost anywhere."
However the bike-sharing boom hasn't been received by everyone. He Changlun, a bike store owner, has run a very successful business for the past five years. But this new bike-sharing service has really caught him off-guard.
"I haven't been able to sell my traditional bikes since this bike-sharing service began. We have only sold a few bikes since the start of the year. We might have to think of moving our business to other cities."