Didi Rumored to Have Raised $1 Billion for Bike-Share Blitz

April 21, 2020

This week, oil prices plunge below $0 a barrel, Lime buys what’s left of Boosted, and shared scooter spending is next to nil, but first…

Welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities by small vehicles like bikes and scooters. The reason you’re reading this email is that you signed up on our website or came to one of our events.

If you’re not a subscriber, and you want to keep getting the latest news and analysis from inside the micromobility movement delivered straight to in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here for free. If you’d like to unsubscribe, just click that link.

Thank you for reading.

Founder Shield is excited to announce that it has joined the #WeAllMove movement. Powered by Wunder Mobility, the goal of WeAllMove is to connect those who are most vulnerable around the globe with mobility solutions from operators that can offer service during this time of crisis. 

As part of WeAllMove, Founder Shield is extending free consultative services concerning insurance coverage and claims questions in light of the Covid-19 crisis. They’re alongside some incredible mobility community members offering support to those in need.

Please check out weallmove.co to learn more and join the movement!

Join Today’s Webinar

This time last year, one of tech’s most respected journalists, Kara Swisher, made a bold prognostication in an op-ed in the New York Times: “Owning a car will soon be like owning a horse—a quaint hobby, an interesting rarity, and a cool thing to take out for a spin on the weekend.”

Kara went on to explain that, with the Cambrian explosion of new mobility services like ride-hail and electric scooters, private vehicles would soon be obsolete, and to prove it, she vowed that her current car would be her last. Motorheads in the commentariat had a conniption, claiming that her analysis was out of touch with the daily reality of many commuters. But as Kara pointed out in the piece, she has a track record stretching back to cell phones of spotting epochal tech shifts early. “I’m pretty good at this guessing game,” she noted. 

A lot has happened in the year since her op-ed came out. Kara did sell her car. Uber’s IPO fizzled. More people tried scooters. Global auto sales continued to slip. Cybertruck happened. An unprecedented pandemic swept the globe, temporarily—or maybe forever—altering the way we travel.

Later today, on our next member-only webinar, Felix Salmon, chief financial correspondent at Axios and host of Slate’s Money podcast, will talk to Kara about the endgame for auto ownership and whether or not any of her priors have changed in the year since she gave up her wheels.

Sign up for Triple M, free for 30 days, to gain access to today’s webinar with Kara Swisher and Felix Salmon.

New Podcast

Black Swans, antifragility, Fat Tony, Skin in the Game, Extremistan vs Mediocristan, the intellectual yet idiot.

Horace Dediu and Oliver Bruce go deep on Nassim Taleb frameworks and how they relate to micromobility on a new episode of the podcast.

Listen here.

#MMAmerica

Reminder: For a limited time, tickets to Micromobility America are on sale for more than $200 off the General Admission price. Grab your tickets to the Bay Area show today.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Between ride-hail, food delivery, and micromobility, Chinese transportation giant Didi aims to complete 100 million rides and orders per day by 2022. With ride-hailing suffering right now in China, Didi appears to be betting big on bikes to reach its goal. Rumor has it that the company’s bike-sharing business, Didi Bike, recently raised more than $1 billion in new funds. Could peoples’ anxiety about taking mass transit and ride-share during the coronavirus pandemic set off a second Chinese bike-sharing boom?

  • Some signs say yes. In Wuhan, Meituan, Didi, and Hellobike all saw bike ridership rebound overnight when travel restrictions were lifted earlier this month.

  • An MIT study says the subway is a “major disseminator” of coronavirus in NYC.

  • Consumer transportation spending is down across the board and the hardest hit segment of all is shared scooters.

  • Lime has purchased all assets and IP from the defunct electric skateboard startup Boosted.

  • Against the wishes of the mayor, NYC will open 75 miles of streets to cyclists and pedestrians.

  • NABSA is tracking pricing and operating status for North America bike-share systems during Covid-19.

  • For Earth Day’s 50th anniversary, the Seattle Times profiled half a dozen “e-riders,” or people who commute using their own lightweight electric vehicles, about the dawning golden age of private micromobility.

  • Uber Eats “most likely” surpassed its ride-hailing division in sales sometime in mid-March. Uber also launched two new delivery services this week for peer-to-peer and retail. And as ride-hailing demand collapses, Lyft is piloting its first delivery service.

  • Used-car prices are teetering on the brink of collapse in the U.S.

  • Bike commuting has leapt from less than 1 percent to 5 percent since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Many bike shops are struggling to keep up with the demand.

  • Lime is reactivating small fleets in 14 cities in the U.S., Europe, and Israel, mostly for the benefit of healthcare workers and law enforcement officials, who will be eligible to ride for free.

  • In contrast with early reports from NYC and Chicago, bike-share ridership in LA appears to have dipped during the pandemic.

  • In Switzerland, travel by bike is up 220 percent compared to pre-Covid, while travel by all other modes is down by more than 50 percent on average. (h/t Horace Dediu via Triple M)

  • Two bike-share services in Dublin, Moby and Bleeper, have begun offering free rides to healthcare workers.

  • Moped manufacturer Niu is working with many of the operators it supplies to provide free rides to healthcare workers. (h/t Augustin Friedel via Triple M)

  • Citi Bike put its first station in upper Manhattan. The project was fast tracked to expand transportation options for healthcare workers who commute to a nearby medical center.

  • How far are cities willing to go to save scooters and should subsidies be on the table? David Zipper lays out the pros and cons. 

  • Vanmoof started taking pre-orders today for its long-awaited X3 and S3 ebikes. Initial reviews are glowing.

Jobs to Be Done

Welcome to our jobs board. Every week we post new career openings in hopes of connecting our smart and talented readers with exciting professional opportunities in the world of new mobility.

Find out who’s hiring below and sign up for the newsletter to see more listings every week.

If your company is looking to make its next hire, and you want to reach thousands of qualified candidates who live and breathe mobility, you should list with us.  Hit reply to find out more about being listed. Free of charge.

Stay Connected

Want more up-to-the-minute news and announcements? Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter and check out our website.