As Mobike and Ofo dominate China’s bike-sharing industry, competition among smaller players is being reshuffled.
Shanghai-based Hellobike announced on October 25 that it has merged with its rival, Youon Low-carbon Technology, a dockless bike-sharing subsidiary of Youon which mainly operates traditional docked public bikes and was listed in China’s mainland stock market in August. Alibaba’s financial arm, Ant Financial, invested in the subsidiary as well.
Hellobike confirmed with AllTechAsia that its CEO, Yang Lei, will serve as CEO of the new company.
Hellobike operates both shared bikes and e-scooters. It claims to have expanded to more than 100 Chinese cities, with 9 million rides daily from nearly 40 million registered users.
In September, Yang said Hellobike would transform itself to be a smart city operator instead of simply being a bike-sharing company. It has partnered with over 40 cities to make them smarter.
It is estimated that the merge with Youon would allow Hellobike to reach its goal, because Youon has a good relationship with local governments after years of collaboration on docked public bikes.
Through Youon, Hellobike has found a way out from under the fierce competition of the bike-sharing sector. We expect more of such merging to happen in the near future.
(Top photo from Hellobike)