Bird lands in Paris, rolls out scooters
Electric scooter rental company Bird has announced its launch in Europe starting with a pilot scheme in Paris this week and soon in Tel Aviv.
Last month the two-wheeled electric vehicle startup was valued at $2 billion in its latest funding round.
The company already has operations in more than 30 cities in the United States and June's $300 million fundraising made Bird the fastest tech company to reach a $2 billion valuation.
Launched less than a year ago, it has 300 employees, many recruited from ride-sharing companies including Uber and Lyft.
Reuters reported that the company is dipping into its venture capital funding to stake out a global footprint. The company said it will start with small pilot programs of 50 to 100 scooters, with plans to add more.
Electric scooter companies have disturbed city transportation patterns and aggravated regulators, while capturing the imagination of tourists and commuters looking for an alternative to cars, bicycles and city buses.
The Financial Times reported how scooter companies tout their product as an efficient transportation method for distances under 5 kilometers, reducing carbon emissions from cars.
It said basic issues remain unresolved, such as how cities will regulate scooters, where users should ride the vehicles, helmet laws and fixing the backlog at manufacturers.
Approaches to regulations so far include capping the number of scooters allowed and requiring permits and fees.
The scooters will only be available on the campus of Tel Aviv University and in three districts in the center of Paris. Bird will gather data on how the vehicles are used and collaborate with city officials before deciding on a longer-term presence.
Bird trails competitor Lime, a San Francisco-based e-bike and e-scooter company that launched in Paris in June. Lime is also in Switzerland and Germany.
The two e-scooter rivals are expanding globally just as Chinese bike-sharing companies such as ofo and Mobike are pulling back from international markets.
Asia's largest bike-sharing startups, including Mobike, ofo, oBike and GoBee, have all trained their sights on Europe in search of market growth.
The companies have rolled out in cities including London, Paris, Brussels, Manchester, Munich, Zurich and Madrid.
But the launches have been plagued with problems: from logistics and regulation to vandalism, theft and mass destruction, raising doubts about the commercial sustainability of the systems.
jonathan@mail.chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 08/02/2018 page11)
