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

  • Webinar: The future cost of gridlock
    October 14, 2014
    A new report by Inrix in collaboration with one of the world's leading economic think tanks, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), quantifies the cost of traffic congestion on individual households and national economies in the US, UK, France and Germany. This is the first study of its kind to forecast the projected increases in these costs in these countries and their most congested cities between 2013 and 2030. Driven by urbanisation and increased GDP per capita over the next 17 ye
  • Los Angeles launches own ‘Green New Deal’
    May 2, 2019
    The city of Los Angeles has released what it calls ‘LA’s Green New Deal’, pledging $860 million per year “to expand the transportation system”. Electric vehicles are at the fore: it pledges an $8 billion upgrade to the city’s electricity grid by 2022, to help build the US’s “largest, cleanest and most reliable urban electrical grid to power the next generation of green transportation”. The city authorities will “expand electric car sharing options” and support implementation of Metro’s first/last mile pl
  • USDOT sponsors new connected vehicle webinars
    January 25, 2016
    The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is sponsoring three webinars to assist the Connected Vehicle Pilot sites, early installers and other interested stakeholders, as part of the Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Program Technical Assistance Webinar series, which began last month. The Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Program seeks to combine connected vehicle and mobile device technologies in innovative and cost-effective ways. Ultimately, this program will improve traveller mobility and syste
  • VWFS acquires majority share in Truck Parking Europe in Utrecht
    February 27, 2019
    Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) is acquiring a 75% stake in Utrecht-based Truck Parking Europe with the aim of improving safety for truck drivers in the Netherlands. Truck Parking Europe - a PTV company - offers a range of services for truck drivers, planners, dispatchers and parking operators via a free app for Android, iOS and the web. These services allow users to filter and find truck platooning locations, connect with other truck drivers, the possibility to claim and secure parking locations a