China’s bike-sharing battle ratchets up a notch as Didi Chuxing enters the fray
The two most aggressive Chinese bicycle-sharing apps look to their bigger backers for support – Didi Chuxing for Ofo and Tencent for Mobike
Didi Chuxing, the Chinese answer to Uber Technologies, is doubling down on the country’s red hot sharing economy by offering one of the largest bike sharing providers in China its most valuable asset – access to its 400 million users.
The dominant player in China’s ride-hailing industry said on Thursday that it has added Ofo’s bike-sharing service to its app in a move that will promote the start-up “progressively across China”.
Didi’s 400 million users across 400 Chinese cities, who have already used the app to hail taxis, private cars and even for car-pooling, will have direct access to Ofo’s signature bright yellow bikes in the app.
The move is a major step towards “more extensive collaboration” after Didi last year became an investor in Ofo and is seen as a counter punch against the partnership between Ofo’s arch-rival Mobike and its heavyweight backer Tencent Holdings.
In March, Tencent’s popular app WeChat integrated Mobike into its wallet interface, giving the bike-sharing service access to its more than 800 million monthly active users.
Neil Wang, greater China president at Frost & Sullivan, said the rivalry in China’s bike-sharing battlefield is moving beyond competition for investment. “More importantly, it is about resource sharing in the long run,” he said.