I hadn’t even noticed the absence of Ofo shared bikes on the street. Once upon a time there were many companies littering the streets with shared bikes. The pavements were littered with multi-coloured QR-coded metal and it was sometimes hard to navigate your way around, and much more difficult to find a parking space for your own bicycle.
It wasn’t just the pavements which were blocked by these bikes, the communities were also choking with them. Mobike were the first to appear but they tended to be very small and had no basket. Then Ofo came, the deposit was less (100rmb) and they had adjustable height seats and baskets so I changed my allegiances.
Then Mobike got wise to Ofo’s benefits and introduced adjustable seats and baskets and lured me back. At 100rmb for 6 months unlimited Mobike rides, I never had to seek out a yellow bike again. My eyes scanned only for the colour orange.
Today, the majority of the bike companies have disappeared but it took a friend to point out that there were almost no yellow Ofo bikes on the streets these days. I looked around and he was right – they had gone bust and the bikes were being cleared away.
It’s no surprise I suppose, the market for shared bicycles is surely saturated. Photos of piles of abandoned bikes are rife on the internet. I even came across one such depository myself.
Blue bikes have now taken the place of Ofo and they have the huge bonus of not having to give a deposit to use them. You just scan them using Alipay and you’re up and running. Such ease of use will, I hope, keep these on the streets.
Now the situation of the shared bikes has calmed down a lot and we are only really left with Orange, Blue and White. Even the green battery bikes seem to have gone.