oBike (ceased operation)

[Belgian_Pie]

@Nuit

at rush hour vehicles can be backed up from traffic light to traffic light

Bad setting, you should be able to get through every green light at the proper speed.

[slawa]

There are a lot of mini scooter sharing startups in US and Europe. Many of them will go belly up because of Covid-19.

Scooter Giant Lime Preparing Layoffs as Rider Numbers Collapse

LimeBike shared electric scooter in San Francisco.

Scooter-sharing service Lime is considering further cuts to its workforce in the U.S. as sales and scooter trips plummeted with the corona virus pandemic.

The management is considering cutting between 50 to 70 people, primarily at its San Francisco headquarters, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation who didn’t want to be named discussing sensitive information. No decision has yet been made and discussions are still ongoing, the person said.

As recently as January, Lime had about $50 million of cash. But with a monthly burn rate of about $22.5 million, and factoring in revenue generation for the year to date, the person estimated Lime had about 12 weeks left before running out of money.

A spokesperson for Lime declined to comment. Chief Executive Officer Brad Bao said in a blog that the company will wind down and pause services in a number of markets across Europe, the U.S., Israel, Brazil and Sydney. It’s also monitoring markets including New Zealand, South Korea, calling the outbreak “an unprecedented challenge” for the cities and communities it serves.

The impact of global self-isolation measures and government bans on travel have decimated Lime’s ability to make money from the hundreds of thousands of scooters it has around the world.

On March 14, for instance, the company recorded about 147,000 scooter trips being made globally, according to internal documents seen by Bloomberg. As cities across Europe started going into lock down, those trips shrunk by almost two thirds to about 52,000 three days later. During that time, Paris, its biggest single market at the time, plunged 98% to just over 300, making it a smaller market than locations such as Wrocław in Poland and Corpus Christi, Texas.

That took a toll on revenue. Within those three days, daily global gross revenue for scooter rides slumped to just $192,593, down 69% from $617,383.

It’s expected to get worse as U.S. states, including California and New York, have asked residents to stay home, leaving scooters unused.

Lime had already slashed its workforce in January. The mood among managers was that this had been a difficult but necessary decision to allow Lime to put itself on a stable trajectory, another person said.

But the corona virus outbreak had been so impactful on the company’s operations that it forced the firm to make further concessions that otherwise wouldn’t have been necessary, the person said.

[Belgian_Pie]

“As recently as January, Lime had about $50 million of cash. But with a monthly burn rate of about $22.5 million, and factoring in revenue generation for the year to date, the person estimated Lime had about 12 weeks left before running out of money.”

Well, another round of money begging will have them continue.

[slawa]

ronnie mcdonnie (taladorei)

[Brianjones]

Its slated as the next Uniburn coming out of Silicon valley.

[Belgian_Pie]

A couple of times I saw a Taiwanese guy riding like mad on the sidewalk, close to 30-40 km/h

[RickRoll]

I just don’t get what motivates some people to do such things.
What’s one thinking when throwing a scooter in the river?

[slawa]

Some people really hate those things. Customers leave them wherever they want. Too many of them laying around.

So they destroy them, throw them into roads to get more people to hate those companies, etc…

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

Are they even letting no kiosk bike companies operating in Taiwan again?

[SunWuKong]

Is that Taiwan? I’ve not even seen one of those since the company started service. I’m more worried about legally purchased electric “bicycles” that fly around with a kid on the front and in the back dodging around senseless kids on the sidewalk and in parks. There are sort-of laws to regulate them, but it hasn’t helped.

[Belgian_Pie]

@SunWuKong

There are sort-of laws to regulate them, but it hasn’t helped.

In Taiwan?

[RickRoll]

Saw this today:

Are people still riding them around?

[Belgian_Pie]

Somebody nicked that one. The locking mechanism is gone.

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

I wouldn’t ride it without any locking mechanism… I think cops are trained to look for ones without them.

[SuperS54]

@Taiwan_Luthiers

I wouldn’t ride it without any locking mechanism

Why not?

[afterspivak]

Those bikes sucked when they were new. I can’t imagine how lousy a ride they would be now.

Guy

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

The bike has no change gears, and the gear it has is crap. You will probably have insanely strong leg muscles if you commute with it though.

[DrinkDaddy2020]

@Nuit

How about sending a mission to Holland, and coming back with a scheme for a few dedicated cycle lanes?

People would just try and ride their scooters on these.

[DrewC]

I never tried oBike. How’s it compare to Ubike?

[Taiwan_Luthiers]

Ubike is like bench pressing 10lbs (ridiculously easy) and obike is like deadlifting 500lbs.

It’s completely shit.

There are also a 2500nt deposit you have to pay to even use the service, and a lot of people did not get it back. Which probably prompted some to cut the lock off of one, and perhaps this is why the police are on the lookout for them…