Shenzhen Introduces Shared Bicycle Operation Quota

Credit: Visual China

BEIJING, July 5 (TiPost) —— The Transport Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality announced on Monday that a quota will be imposed on the city’s shared bicycle operators for the first time through public bidding, with the operational right valid for three years.

According to the announcement, the shared bicycle quota through the public bidding is 450,000 units, of which 360,000 units will be handed out initially and the remaining 90,000 units are meted out ad hoc, depending on riding demand and operational service assessment.

The volume of shared bicycles put into the market is under dynamic control, which will be adjusted based on transportation demand and bike operators’ service quality, the Shenzhen government said.

The 450,000-unit quota is higher than the total number of shared bicycles circulated in Shenzhen at the moment. According to data released by the Shenzhen government in March, three companies — Meituan Bike, Hello Bike, and Didi Bike — had a total of about 412,000 shared bicycles in Shenzhen at the end of 2022.

Shared bicycles in Shenzhen have not yet been able to operate freely region-wide. Industry observers said that only Meituan Bike can be placed in the whole city of Shenzhen. Hello Bike mainly operates in Baoan District, with some vehicles operating in Futian, Luohu, Longhua, and Guangming Districts. Didi Bike mainly operates in Nanshan District, with some vehicles operating in Futian, Longgang, and Pingshan Districts.

Mobike entered Shenzhen in October 2016 as one of the earliest bike-sharing companies to enter the city. The Traffic Police Bureau of Shenzhen and Mobike issued a joint statement on December 16 of that year, saying that Shenzhen’s Traffic Police would work with Mobike to study and develop specifications for the number of shared bikes to be placed, places to operate, time to place, and how those bikes could be placed. This means that the authorities acquiesced that Mobike could put vehicles in the city of Shenzhen.

The year 2017 witnessed a wave of bankruptcy in the domestic bike-sharing industry, affecting the leading enterprises. Meituan acquired Mobike on April 4, 2018, and the launch of Meituan Bike inherited the right to place vehicles in the entire Shenzhen, enabling Meituan Bike to expand rapidly in Shenzhen.

After the end of the bike-sharing collapse wave, several bike-sharing startups gradually became major players in the market, such as Didi Bike and Hello Bike. However, after the burst of the bike-sharing bubble, local governments were more cautious, and it was not easy for these companies to enter Shenzhen.

Bike-sharing companies had to communicate with the government of the lower administrative districts of Shenzhen to obtain permission before they entered the city, and their development was relatively slow. For example, when Hello Bike entered Shenzhen, the authorities only allowed Hello Bike to pilot in a few streets in Shenzhen’s Baoan District.

Currently, the Meituan Bike is a dominant player in Shenzhen’s bicycle-sharing market. According to the data released by the Transport Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality on July 20, 2021, 261,900 units of the Meituan Bike were placed in the market, while the figure for Hello Bike was 95,600 units and 32,000 units for the Didi Bike.

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