Skip to main content

Ofo ‘scales back’ bike sharing operations in US

Chinese bike sharing company Ofo is scaling back its US operations and has laid off employees from multiple departments. The move, according to a report by Quartz, will allow the company to refocus on markets in a bid to become profitable. The start-up plans to continue operating in US cities such as Seattle, San Diego and New York. According to Quartz, the company is also leaving Australia and Israel and reducing operations in the UK. The company operates yellow bicycles which riders can rent thro
July 24, 2018 Read time: 1 min
Chinese bike sharing company Ofo is scaling back its US operations and has laid off employees from multiple departments. The move, according to a report by %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external Quartz false https://qz.com/1331368/bike-sharing-company-ofo-is-dramatically-scaling-back-in-north-america/?utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Issue:%202018-07-20%20Smart%20Cities%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:16284%5D&amp;utm_term=Smart%20Cities%20Dive false false%>, will allow the company to refocus on markets in a bid to become profitable.


The start-up plans to continue operating in US cities such as Seattle, San Diego and New York.

According to Quartz, the company is also leaving Australia and Israel and reducing operations in the UK.

The company operates yellow bicycles which riders can rent through a mobile app for around £1 per minute or one hour ride, depending on the city.

Ofo was founded in 2014 by students at Beijing’s Peking University and entered the US last year with the intention of offering a transportation option that could cover first- or last-mile trips.

Related Content

  • Squalio’s shows smart city connectivity at Intertraffic debut
    March 21, 2018
    Latvian company Squalio is exhibiting at Intertraffic for the first time to publicise its ‘all-in’ smart city system called Fits (future intelligent transportation system). Feed from any make or type of sensor, controller, camera or variable message sign within a city can be taken in and the system converts the data into a common format. It then provides an overview of the entire network with green/ yellow/red colour coding to illustrate which parts of the network (both the traffic flow and the management
  • Call for papers, design awards competition: 55th International Making Cities Liveable Conference
    July 21, 2017
    The International Making Cities Liveable Conference on Healthy, 10-Minute Neighbourhoods which takes place at The Shaw Center in Ottawa, Canada, from 14-18 May 2018 has issued a call for papers. The conference aims to share achievements and learn from others how to best promote healthy, sustainable, equitable 10-minute neighbourhoods. It will discuss the best neighbourhood models for encouraging walking, biking and public transit, high-density human scale mixed use, places to foster daily social life and co
  • ITS America 2019: news and reports
    June 11, 2019
    Last week’s ITS America 28th Annual Meeting & Expo saw some of the ITS industry’s biggest players gathering in Washington, DC. ITS International produced three Daily News magazines at the show, covering launches, deals, products and highlights from a packed speaker programme. For all the stories and digital editions of the Daily News, go to: www.itsamericalive.com
  • Zipcar deploys car sharing service across eight London Boroughs
    January 3, 2018
    Floating car service Zipcar Flex (Zipcar), which is said to save 54% of transport costs compared to ride-hailing companies, has been made available to 3.5m Londoners across several Boroughs. The 29p per mile solution is designed to provide its members an environmentally friendly alternative to private car ownership and will only charge for the exact time of their trip. Members can use the car for a one-way journey and be dropped off in one of the thousands of spaces available within its Zipzone, which