A lone Bluegogo bike can be seen, surrounded by its Mobike and Ofo competition on the streets of Beijing.
Aloysius Low/CNETBike sharing in China is about to change, as local Chinese press are reporting that the third largest service, Bluegogo, is having funding issues and some employees in its main offices have been cut.
Reporters from The Paper visited an empty office in Beijing and found out that the company owed 2 million yuan ($300,000) in office rental. The company, which had raised 600 million yuan ($90 million) and has 700,000 bicycles, appears to also be unable to refund deposits, according to online chatter on China’s version of Twitter, Weibo.
The imminent death of Bluegogo will mean that Mobike and Ofo, the two largest services, will dominate the landscape to come. Ofo, being backed by Alibaba, and Mobike, backed by Tencent, are possibly in talks for a merger with China’s Uber, Didi. The merger will let companies raise prices as well as cut back on bikes to become profitable.
Besides dominating China, both Ofo and Mobike have ventured to other countries in the world, including the UK (Manchester), Italy, Australia (Sydney), Singapore and the US (Seattle). Bluegogo, however, remains rooted in China, though it did briefly launch in San Francisco.
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