Dai Wei, the founder of the now-defunct bike-sharing operator ofo, made a surprising move by venturing into the United States and establishing About Time Coffee.
While Gojek has reportedly denied its involvement in such talks, a potential merger between the two does not sound like something completely out of the question.
After a record-setting 2018 that saw Chinese VCs ladle out cash to startups at mind-boggling valuations, current numbers spooked global investors, some of whom regard the diminished numbers as a sign of an imminent industry debacle.
When it seemed like we were about to hear the eulogy to the troubled industry, Meituan-Dianping and Didi Chuxing – companies that timely bought into bike-sharing flag-bearers Mobike and Bluegogo – started revitalizing their bicycle fleets.
“It will take 3.6 years to get my deposit back,” a reporter from Sina wrote. Ofo users have been seen waiting in line in front of the company’s headquarters at Zhongguancun in Beijing for the past few days. The harsh winds of the Beijing winter didn’t stop them from getting their deposit back.
Bike-sharing giant ofo has finally agreed to be bought out by Didi-Chuxing according to Chinese media. The deal is said to be worth $2 billion and that all other co-founders, except for CEO Dai Wei, will be leaving the company, according to the report.
The Internet age has brought with it the “New Four Great Inventions” of China: high speed trains, scan-and-pay mobile payments, bike-sharing, and ecommerce. This week’s episode is the first in a two-part story on bike-sharing
The bike-sharing company ofo announced it pulled its business out from the Madrid region in Spain, according to Chinese media. This comes after their recent withdrawal from Australia and Germany.
The Chinese bike-sharing startup ofo confirmed with Quartz that the company is laying off employees in its North American marketing, communications, and engineering teams, along with its recent withdrawal from other markets.
Mobike, one of the world’s largest bike-sharing companies, has just launched its new pedal-assisted electric bikes as well as a deposit refund plan at the launch event on July 5.
On the morning of June 11, Caixin.com revealed that, ofo, the Beijing-based bike-sharing platform, has a 1.5 billion yuan ($234.2 million) deficit with only 3.5 billion yuan left in user deposit.
Radical personnel changes happened to ofo senior management including a massive layoff, according to Chinese media reports. Zhang Yanqi, COO of ofo reportedly resigned and the overseas sales department which he led was dissolved at the same time.
Dai Wei, the CEO of bike-sharing platform ofo, turned down a potential takeover by Didi Chuxing and called on employees to “fight until the end,” according to South China Morning Post.
