China's bike-sharing industry is shifting to a new gear and expanding overseas. On Tuesday, Mobike's dockless bike scheme rolled into London. The Chinese firm is the fourth foreign company to introduce smart shared bikes in the British capital. CGTN's Xi Jia reports.

 

This time, the busy orange bikes land in London, a small city big enough to be a global heavyweight. On Tuesday, China's Mobike officially launched its smart cycling scheme in London's Ealing borough. Residents there will now be able to download the app and ride the bike for their daily use.

 

STEVE PYER UK HEAD OF MOBIKE To use the scheme you need to download the app and register.You just scan the QR code and get on the bike. It's 29 pounds of deposit, so you top up your card using a credit card or debit card, and then you top up your account like 5 pounds, 50 pence for half an hour.

 

Mobike is delivering an initial 750 bikes to Ealing Central and Acton, with that number expected to increase to meet growing demand for the service. Being the second city in England that embraces Mobike shared bikes, London has a reason to get on board.

 

JULIAN BELL, HEAD OF EALING COUNCIL We don't have Santander dock bike hire scheme, it didn't come out this far west.this is great opportunity having bike sharing with the dockless system. I think it's the way forward for the future, it's much more flexible than having docking stations, it's cheaper, it's better.

 

As Santander dock bikes does not cover all the boroughs of London, shared bike like Mobike has started from areas that have no dock bikes. After piloting the UK's first council and community backed bicycle sharing scheme in Manchester over the summer, Mobike has got 3 months experience helping people get used to the dockless shared bikes. People can dock their bikes at some appointed area shown on the app.

 

STEVE PYER, UK HEAD OF MOBIKE The challenge is really for acceptance. People don't know what dockless is, so when they first see dockless bike,peple are skeptical, not sure how it's gonna work.But Manchester has been a perfect proving grounds.I think Ealing will be the same.

 

There are 33 different boroughs in London. Getting permissions from each borough to introduce the bike is another big challenge. As Ealing Borough has no Santander bikes which will cost the council a lot of money to build the docking station, Mobike does not cost the council anything.

 

STEVE PYER, UK HEAD OF MOBIKE They don't have to pay anything which is massive advantage,every government and city in the UK got massive target to increase cycle as a share to reduce the number of cars on the road and also to get their cities healthier, and the scheme just fits all these criteria so it come at a perfect time.

 

The bikes can be used only in the Ealing borough. Now there are 4 KINDS OF foreign shared bikes in London including Singapore's oBike, Ireland's Urbo bike,Chinese Ofo bike and Mobike, all of which could only be used in certain area of London with local council's permission. Xi Jia CGTN London.