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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the role of actors, policies and technology in the evolution of a basic urban transport service by investigating a complex range of factors shaping the inception and adaptation of the bike-sharing programme. Media data were analysed in relation to two major programmes, supplemented by further investigation into the broader discourse of the programmes. The findings reveal that an array of actors in the categories of government, citizen, business maker and investor, together with evolving policies and technology, collectively determine the sustainability of the programme. The operator-investor centred unorthodox co-production and delivery of dockless bike-sharing provides an alternative model to urban basic service provision which is currently dominated by the centralised and government-citizen centred co-production models.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an early version of the paper. In data collection and verification, Aaron Yang assisted to capture all the online media reports identified for the period Jan 2016 to Dec 2018; Adam Li helped to conduct an independent check on data accuracy. Irene Han and Jerome Han helped to proofread the paper. All remaining errors are the author’s responsibility.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. These are widely reported in media news. For example, refer to report on 23 January 2019 ‘mobike is dead; the brand name has changed to Meituan Danche’ (http://www.sohu.com/a/290898424_532789); report on 21 December 2018 ‘ofo’s founder Dai Wei is on the list of legally in debt’ in http://www.sohu.com/a/283253823_99957087 accessed on 13 May 2019.
2. As a rapidly developing transitional economy, China is experiencing enormous changes in policies and regulations as well as technology applications. These changes are felt in the development of the dockless bike-sharing programme and are indispensable to this study.
3. The Google Search engine generates a filtered list of the most relevant webpages and omits the webpages which are judged by the algorithm as very similar to those already on the list. The omitted webpages can be included by manually selecting the function to ‘repeat the search with the omitted results included’. Google Search uses algorithms to analyse the intention of the searcher, relevance and usability of the webpage, quality of contents, and searcher’s context information (location, searching history and settings) to determine the search outcomes. For further details about how Google Search works, refer to https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/algorithms/.
4. See ‘Hu Weiwei the Mobike founder’ in https://www.huxiu.com/article/191835.html
Accessed on 15 June 2019.
5. It is recognised that the Dutch ‘white bikes’ were the first generation dockless shared bikes (Shi et al. Citation2018; Gu et al. Citation2019; Si et al. Citation2019). Introduced by the radical consumer group PROMO members in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the ‘white bikes’ were used for making a statement against motorisation. The recent dockless bike-sharing originated from China constitute more of a private, entrepreneurial and venture capital project (Du and Cheng Citation2018, p. 4), differing from the Dutch ‘white bikes’ in both technology and purpose.
6. See ‘Dai Wei Riding from Peking University to the world’ in http://www.nfpeople.com/article/7658 accessed on 15 June 2019.
7. There were about 77 dockless bike-sharing programmes in China nationwide at the peak of its development. Refer to ‘Ministry of Transport: 20 of the 77 dockless bike-sharing programs closed business; we need serious policies’ in http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2018-02-09/doc-ifyrkzqr0714712.shtml.
8. Refer to ‘ofo’s D round financing is doubtable’ in https://www.jianshu.com/p/d817461d5052 accessed on 11 December 2019.
9. Refer to ‘how to understand ofo’ record-breaking success in E round financing’ in http://www.sohu.com/a/155246722_486088 accessed on 11 December 2019.
10. For example, Mobike introduced credit rewards as an incentive to users to park in designated areas. Ofo has also started to rework its lock mechanism to their new bikes to rectify the locking problem associated with combination codes.
11. Refer to ‘The lack of clear rules about security deposit paid by users is questioned; users are alerted by potential crisis’ in http://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/gsnews/2016-10-12/doc-ifxwrhpm2998029.shtml accessed on 11 May 2019.
12. Refer to ‘no more users – the black tricycle taxis are forced out’ in https://daily.zhihu.com/story/9509782 accessed on 11 May 2019.
13. Refer to ‘Government put on a break: un-controlled growth of dockless bike-sharing is over’, in https://www.huxiu.com/article/211040.html accessed on 15 December 2019.
14. Refer to ‘Ministry of Transportation: governments need to strengthen their regulations and supervision to encourage and support dockless bike-sharing’ in http://finance.sina.com.cn accessed on 15 December 2019.
15. Refer to ‘The Ministry of Transportation endorsed Guidelines for Dockless Bike-sharing and called for collective action on management’ in http://www.zczj.com/column/2017-05-22/content_11853.html accessed on 15 December 2019.
16. The Guideline was officially endorsed in August 2017. Some 30 local government followed the central government principles and developed local guidelines. Refer to ‘China aims at controlling the over prosperity in dockless bike-sharing’ in https://www.lez-cc.info accessed on 15 December 2019.
17. See ‘cheating QR code appeared on Mobike; automatic funds transfer begins once scanned’ in http://news.sohu.com/20161118/n473491906.shtml accessed on 11 May 2019.
18. See ‘Unravelling the shared bike hunters’ in http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2017-04-07/doc-ifyecezv2430458.shtml accessed on 11 May 2019.
19. Wukong Danche announced the cessation of operations on 13 June 2017; 3Vbike was closed on 21 June 2017. Refer to ‘Following the bankruptcy of Wukong, another bike-sharing scheme closed after opening for a mere 4 months’, in https://36kr.com/p/5081810 accessed on 8 May 2019.
20. ‘The founder of Dingding Danche was seized by police’, refer to http://tech.163.com/17/1030/07/D1VR4IG400097U7R.html accessed on 8 May 2019.
21. Refer to footnote 7.
22. See ‘Mobike marched to Berlin’ in http://www.xinhuanet.com accessed on 15 June 2019.
23. See ‘ofo claimed entry to the Japanese market’ in http://money.jrj.com.cn accessed on 15 June 2019.
24. See ‘the yellow bikes entered Busan, South Korea’ in https://36kr.com/p/5116001 accessed on 11 May 2019.
25. A widely reported venture capital investor is Mr Zhu Xiaohu, who sold out all his 5.83% holdings in ofo by January 2018. The exact amount of capital gain was not disclosed but some believed that Mr Zhu could have made billions of US dollars. Refer to ‘The harvesting season of Mr Zhu Xiaohu’ in https://finance.jrj.com.cn/people/2018/04/20063924419723.shtml accessed on 15 December 2019.
26. Xiaoming Danche became the first bankrupted bike-sharing scheme, refer to ‘xiaomin Danche is bankrupted, can users get their 199 yuan deposit back?’ in http://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2018-08/14/c_1123264278.htm accessed on 8 May 2019; Kuqi was sued by its users in Nov 2017, refer to ‘298 yuan deposit failed to return, the “rural-millionaire Kuqi” was sued in court’, in http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2017-11-29/doc-ifypceiq5850394.shtml accessed on 8 May 2019.
27. See ‘Mobike and ofo both denied misuse of their 6 billion yuan deposit’ in http://www.sohu.com/a/207852765_522913 accessed on 13 May 2019. It was also reported that in March/April 2017, both Mobike and ofo had about 1 million new bikes added to their fleets but at the end of 2017 the total was about 200,000 bikes. See ‘Deposit, financing and corruption: how long could they last before merging?’ in https://www.iyiou.com/p/61626.html accessed on 7 May 2019.
28. Refer to ‘Meituan bought Mobike at low price: what’s behind the acquisition?’ in http://www.xinhuanet.com/2018-04/16/c_129850906.htm accessed on 15 December 2019.
29. The bike-sharing bubble is burst; ofo receives massive user request to refund deposit; Mobike begins to layoff in https://t.cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/6458549062/180f5a34600100crqj
Accessed on 6 May 2016.
30. The end of bike-sharing, in http://www.sohu.com/a/304621175_118788 accessed on 6 May 2019.
31. Refer to ‘Government began to clean the shared bikes’, in https://read01.com/DGyOe5K.html#.XNK32ZMza9Y accessed on 8 May 2019.
32. Refer to ’39 cities endorsed detailed supervision measures; there will be strict control over user deposit’ in https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2018-12-26/doc-ihqhqcis0572298.shtml accessed on 9 May 2019.
33. Refer to ‘3500 applications processed daily for the 16 million applicants on waiting list’ in http://news.iresearch.cn/content/201907/294768.shtml accessed on 11 December 2019.
34. Refer to ‘The State Council publicised guidelines to put in place platforms supporting mass entrepreneurship in order to speed up development of the “four crowds” initiative’ in http://companies.caixin.com/2015-09-26/100857591.html accessed on 9 May 2019. The ‘four crowds’ refer to zhongchuang (crowd innovation), zhongchou (crowdfunding), zhongfu (crowd supporting), and zhongbao (crowdsourcing).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sun Sheng Han
Sun Sheng Han is Professor of Urban Planning in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne. He researches into land-use and transportation studies, GIS and spatial analysis, city-region development and planning, and Asian cities.