Mobike scraps China users deposit in bike-sharing race

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Mobike, one of the world’s biggest bike-sharing companies, is doing away with deposits for all customers in China, amid a fierce battle to win users.

By scanning the QR code on the bike, new users can directly enjoy the service without deposit since Thursday. Existing users can get a refund of their deposits, as the company’s service also gets integrated into Meituan platform, Mobike said, after a 2.7-billion-US-dollar takeover of the bike company in April by Meituan, China’s largest provider of on-demand online services.

“The move is designed to establish a no-threshold, zero-burden and zero-condition deposit-free standard for the entire bike sharing industry,” Mobike said in a statement.

New users of Mobike in China can directly enjoy the service without deposit now. /VCG Photo

The company is also launching e-bikes that can run up to 70 kilometers per charge at a top speed of 20 km/hour.

Mobike previously collected a 299 yuan (45 US dollar) deposit from each user in China, which makes up a majority of its 200 million users globally. The company is competing with Alibaba-backed ofo, which also counts ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing as a major investor.

The two bike-sharing companies have raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors but have waged a costly war of subsidies in a bid to win the Chinese and overseas markets.

Source(s): Reuters