Eight months ago, ofo`s former Australian strategy chief, Scott Walker, might not have thought his company would go the same way when he attacked rivals oBike and Reddy for littering their bikes "like a milkman."
"these operators rushed into the market without being adequately prepared to mess up order and make our work even more difficult," Scott Walker told Australian media at the time.
On October 24, 2017, after half a month of commissioning in Adelaide, ofo announced its official presence in Sydney, Australia.
On July 10, 2018, ofo announced to Australian media that, in line with the company`s "strategic decision", it would phase out its operations in Australia over the next 60 days and eventually withdraw from the Australian market. As to whether there are more specific reasons, ofo has not responded to the interface news.
"in the process, the ofo bike will be gradually removed and placed in the warehouse," a ofo spokesman said. This is not an easy decision for ofo, and ofo Australia will be responsible for the aftermath. And "focus on the priority market from an international perspective."
Scott Walker did not witness the end of ofo in Australia. In March this year, he left office.
Ofo, sharing a bike, the interface reporter is in the street of sydney.
The climate does not suit one.
"this [ofo out of Australia] is a matter of time." Rebecca Cooper, an Australian ofo user and product manager at Ansarada, an Internet company, commented on Twitter.
"I used ofo to share bikes several times, and it felt good, but gradually it became harder and harder to find them because they were found either in a ditch or in a mountain like this."
Twitter screenshot
Bike sharing can be challenging to land in Australia, but this is perhaps the most unexpected problem for operators: user education, or, to put it bluntly, user quality issues.
Unlike the problem that shared bikes in China are privately owned: in Sydney and Melbourne, large numbers of shared bikes have been vandalized, not only have they not been properly locked and placed, they have been thrown into the river, by the rail tracks, and piled up on the corner of the street. Even hanging from a tree.
As a result, sharing bikes has been strongly opposed by local residents as "moving obstacles" and "potential dangers for tripping pedestrians".
Within three months of entering Sydney for shared bikes such as ReddyGo,oBike,Airbike, Sydney City Hall received 29 complaints about sharing bikes. After entering Melbourne, o Bike was ordered by the Victoria Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rectify too many complaints. Otherwise, a ticket of up to $3171.4 per ticket will be issued.
In the past, ofo has pledged to be "more responsible" than other operators when it enters the Australian market.
Indeed, ofo put forward many solutions. This includes the introduction of "geo-fencing"-based technology to divide the parking area based on the "Guiding Principles" issued by the six District Councils in Sydney, with an experienced localization and maintenance team to ensure the orderly parking of the bicycle and to maintain it in a timely manner. Of course, in Australia with high manpower costs, this also increases the operating costs of the ofo.
"We provide 25 to 30 recommended parking areas within each city hall, and we have surveillance footage near some parking areas to monitor the spoilers," Scott Walker told the public at the time. Through ofo`s "electronic fence" GPS satellite positioning technology, users can find the most reasonable parking area through the proposed parking area.
ofo Recommended parking area, ofo officer push-out map
Once a user tries to park his car outside a specified area, the user`s credit points are deducted; after deducting a certain number of points, the user is blacklisted.
"This is what we distinguish from our competitors: from the first day of operation, we proactively seek the best way of operation." Scott Walker 说.
However, Best practices only slightly delayed ofo`s exit from Australia.
Ofo is doomed to the same fate after Singapore`s bike-sharing company oBike, `s home company, Reddy Go, announced last month that it would withdraw from the Australian market.
Mobike and ofo shared their bikes, an interface reporter photographed on the streets of Sydney.
oversupply
If the management user is difficult, the deeper problem may lie in the supply and demand imbalance of the supply demand.
When they entered the market, bike-sharing operators believed that the emergence of bike-sharing in Australia could make up for the gap in transportation, and that short-distance point-to-point travel solutions also had a large market.
However, from the point of view of the user, the feeling is very different.
"it`s not surprising (ofo left Australia) because there aren`t a lot of people who use it." Mandy, a Chinese in Australia, told the interface that local people are rarely seen using bikes in Australia, and she believes the main reason is that commuters in Australia do not really need to share bicycles.
"in China, riding ofo is usually the distance between the subway and the company, that is, about one kilometer or so, and it is not necessary to take a taxi a little far on foot. But in Australia, where you usually work in the downtown areas, train subways are available directly, Melbourne CBD has free trams, and if you work in the suburbs, you must be driving. "
Mandy says he`s used a few times of sharing a bike, and the experience is common, "The land of Australia is uneven and has a large fluctuation. It is not suitable for riding a bicycle in many times.".
J, a Chinese student in Sydney, has a similar feeling. "there aren`t many people who use shared bikes because they don`t feel very convenient-there are very few cars, and they wear hard hats," he told reporters at the interface. Australia is not as dense as Chinese neighborhoods. It relies mainly on cars and trains, and bicycles are of too little use. "
Wearing a helmet to ride a shared bike in Australia, an interface reporter photographed on the streets of Sydney
In fact, a May study by Australia`s Queensland University of Science and Technology found that Australia has one of the world`s lowest bike-sharing rates.
In Sydney, sharing bicycles is used 0.3 times a day on average, compared with 26 times in other countries.
Kim Do, a senior analyst at IBISworld, an industry and market research firm, has talked to Australian news site News.com.au about the issue, arguing that the main problem with sharing bikes such as ofo in the Australian market is the oversupply.
"A number of bike-sharing start-ups poured into the market last year to compete for users, but bike-sharing users did not grow as the number of bikes increased, leading to this situation," Kim said.
In addition, the small population base is also the cause of oversupply. According to the (ABS) Census by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the population of Australia as of December 2016 was close to 25 million, not much more than the population of first-tier cities in the country.
And Australia, unlike China in terms of population distribution, is largely scattered outside the suburbs of the city centre. Melbourne`s CBD, for example, is only 36 square kilometers and covers only about one hundred and forty thousand people.
In March, ofo`s official linkedin account posted a push to celebrate the three hundred and twenty thousand total use of ofo since it entered the Sydney market.
However, according to QuestMobile data, ofo users worldwide in May 2018, the total number of use as high as nine hundred and sixty one million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine times.
Resistance of government
The last straw that overwhelms the bike-sharing road in Australia may be the attitude of government across Australia.
Compared with China, Singapore and other government, Australia`s local government has always had an optional and reserved attitude towards sharing bicycles.
In the case of oBike, when oBike`s bike-sharing was badly damaged, Melbourne government did not give much patience and support to oBike. Melbourne`s mayor has even said that if oBike fails to manage bike-sharing, it will be banned.
Government`s attitude comes down to the fact that the bike-sharing model is not exactly consistent with the Australian city`s development plan.
As Mandy and Little J say, according to traditional travel habits, native Australians don`t use bikes most of the time, but abandoned bikes have a negative impact on the living environment, adding to the cost and burden of governance for government.
Australian media The Age reports with photos, photographer: Joe Armao
By contrast, ofo is already "born with a gold key." According to Scott Walker, ofo was the first bike-sharing platform to obtain permission to operate government in Australia, and has since been endorsed by the New South Wales (NSW) Bicycle Association, (bicycle NSW), a bicycle authority. As a result, more space has been given to work with local councils, government and bike stakeholders.
In fact, on March 11 this year, ofo co-organized "Gear Up Girl", Australia`s largest women`s community ride, with the New State Cycling Association.
But when it comes to bike parking, Andrew Constance, the new state transport secretary, is outspoken: "these littering bikes are as disgusting as abandoned supermarket shopping carts, and they have to be cleaned up."
On bike sharing out of the market, new state governor Gladys Berejiklian also spoke to the Australian media 2GB.
"there are [bike-sharing] companies saying that the rules set by government have shackled innovation, and that`s what they think they are. It`s also possible that people don`t want to use their services at all, or they don`t like the way they operate, "Gladys Berejiklian said." if they decide not to provide them anymore, it doesn`t matter-I think we have a good enough transport network and choice. It doesn`t matter if you don`t share a bike. "
Gladys Berejiklian also emphasized that bike-sharing is a service provided by private companies, not by government: "We will provide as much as possible opportunities for innovation, and if there are new modes of travel, there are easier ways to do so." We will give this choice a chance to make it happen. "
Now, however, the prospect of such an option is suddenly bleak.
The future performance of ofo in the international market remains to be observed, following its withdrawal from the Middle East and Israeli markets and again from Australia.
Meanwhile, ofo`s biggest rival in China, mobike, remains in Australia.
On July 11, 2018, mobike announced the launch of E-Bike, an e-bike product, and sent a Twitter push asking users, "would you use Mobike more often if E-Bike could help you when you climb the hill?"
