Starting on 29 April 2017, users can easily rent a bicycle from one of the six leading bike-sharing companies in China via Alipay without installing additional mobile apps.

Alipay’s “Scan & Ride” function connects six bike sharing brands including Ofo, Youonbike, Bluegogo, Hellobike, Funbike, and Ubike, offering a total number of over six million shared bicycles across 50 cities in China.

Currently, shared bikes on the streets require the download, installation, and registration of mobile apps; some may ask for cash deposits. Skipping all these delivers better user experience and convenience. These bike-sharing apps sitting on top of Alipay app achieves that; and, the idea is very similar to WeChat launched Mini-Program.

All the six bike-sharing companies but Hellobike also joined Alipay’s riding protection program, which offers insurance to bike riders.

China bike-sharing market is estimated to reach US$1.5 billion (+735.8%) and 209 million users in 2017. Read China bike-sharing market insights in Q1 2017 →

Update (30 April 2017): Mobike reported an addition of 24 million newly registered users on 28 April 2017 after being integrated with WeChat since 29 March 2017, an increase of over 200%.

Check out the UN report: The growth of digital payment ecosystems in China: what it means for other countries

China bike sharing market is estimated to reach US$1.5 billion (+735.8%) and 209 million users in 2017. Ofo, Mobike, and Ubike are the top brands in the market with the highest brand awareness while Baicyle is also in the top 3 by user satisfation after Ofo and Mobike.

China bike sharing market reached 1.23 billion yuan (US$180 million) in 2016 with 28 million users. It’s estimated to grow exponentially to 10.28 billion yuan (US$1.49 bn; +735.8%) with 209 million users in 2017.

China Bike Sharing Market Brand Penetrations in Chinese Cities

Ofo bike sharing has penetrated the most number of Chinese cities (43), excluding 3 overseas cities as of 31 March 2017. Mobike is also available in over 30 cities.

• Ofo – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Kunming, Chengdu, etc.
• Mobike – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Ningbo, Xiamen,etc.
• Hellobike – Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen, Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Wuhan,etc.
• Xiaoming – Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuzhen, Shantou, Jieyang
• Bluegogo –Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Beijing, Nanjing, Foshan
• Ubike – Shanghai, Zhuhai, Shantou, Changsha, Foshan
• Youonbike – Kunming, Changsha, Chengdu, Beijing
• Qibei – Hangzhou, Shenyang
• Yibu Bike – Chengdu

Brand Awareness in Q1 2017

The top brands by brand awarness in China are Mobike, ofo, Ubike, Xiaoming, Bluegogo, and Qibei. However, ofo beat Mobike in terms of brand preference. Ofo also tops the ranking by user stickiness and user satisfactions.

The top problems users are facing include the number of available bikes and the locations, high deposit, inaccurate bike positioning, poor riding experience, customer service, inconvenient registration, etc.

Over one-third of respondents (35.3%) expressed the inconvenience caused by sabotaged bicycles. Users prefer to provide shared bike usage feedback by WeChat Official Accounts (50.4%), WeChat/QQ Groups (39.7%), App (38%), official Weibo (26.5%), etc.

Also read: Privacy and security are top concerns in China’s sharing economy