Winter arrives for China’s once-hot bike sharing market as more players go bust

Silicon Valley is learning from China. A recent example: Bike sharing services. In the country where the idea was born, it's been a headache for both users and the business operators.

The term "bike sharing" is somewhat misleading. It's not really about sharing bikes; it's basically just bike rental. But that hasn't stopped operators from being part of one of the biggest tech booms in China over the last year.

Over 40 start-ups jumped into the bike sharing market, took billions of dollars in venture capital money and crammed China’s cities with their bikes... until recently when the bubble burst and some of the smaller players started going bust.

Offices are deserted. Staff were dismissed with months of unpaid salaries. And infuriated users vented on social media over deposits that they can’t seem to get back.

In November, the CEO of the third biggest company Bluegogo wrote an emotional apology, admitting that the company was trouble. He said he couldn't make progress in negotiations to find a buyer because he was "too naive" for the competitive bike-sharing market. At its peak, Bluegogo had 20 million registered users.