At the heart of China's sharing economy lie the dockless, app-based bike sharing services, some of which now lie dead! In a short timespan, bike-sharing has gone from extreme highs to extreme lows. What does that kind of heady ride mean? CGTN's Sun Ye has more from Beijing.

The spring of 2017. The park anywhere and fetch anywhere bikes were all the rage. The biggest players had billions in investment and talked about bikes taking over not only China but eventually, the world.

But that was then, this is now. Top companies in the business are pulling out from overseas. One of them, ofo, suffered a difficult end to 2018 paying back deposit refunds as it nearly went bankrupt. And tens of thousands of unattended bikes lay waste in their graveyards.

Zhu Wei has closely watched the ups and downs of them all. He said today's sharing services, including the bikes, do have problems they can't escape.

ZHU WEI, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CHINA UNIV. OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND LAW "The sharing economy should bring along revenue. But none of the said biking services are making money. How do they balance the cost of the bikes, the operations and the low rent? We don't see a clear profit model. Meanwhile, how do the services meet users' needs and guarantee their rights? They are often unregulated as the sector is still young."

SUN YE BEIJING "These problems are not unique to the bikes. But is China's sharing economy really hitting the speed bump? After all, what's yours is mine. We have shared cellphone chargers, shared living spaces, the list goes on."

Liu Menglan's "office" is in a shared working space.

It's at 5LMEET, an idling-hotel-turned-co-working space in Beijing's CBD area. Office space can be rented by the desk, by the room and by the day.

LIU MENGLAN NEBULA CAPITAL ADVISORS "For us start-up companies, location is important, but so is a good industry vibe and ambience. We are a small, flexible team, and watch the costs very carefully, so co-working space fits us."

The place is solvent.

And the analyst Liu says sharing has a future. Zhu Wei agrees.

ZHU WEI, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CHINA UNIV. OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND LAW "Regulations that help the sharing economy players navigate unfamiliar terrain are now catching up fast. And as the concept has yet to sink in China's third, fourth tier cities, just think about the room for growth."

For the two-wheelers?

More of their story will be written come spring 2020.

SY, CGTN, BJ.