Mobike, China’s leading bike-sharing startup, announced today it has sealed a strategic partnership with Japan’s biggest social network operator LINE.
LINE has led the Series A round of Mobile’s affiliate in Japan, poised to facilitate the latter’s expansion in the local market.
As Mobike Japan’s largest overseas shareholder, LINE holds as much as 20% stake in Mobike Japan. The two companies plans to cooperate in several verticals including the expansion of Mobike’s app-based bike-sharing service.
71 million LINE users will be able to register and access the bike-sharing service via LINE app in a few months. In cities where the bike-sharing service will be available, users can unlock provided bikes by scanning the QR code using LINE app, and pay for the rides with LINE Pay and other payment methods.
Mobike now operates in over 200 cities across 12 countries, with 8 million bikes serving over 200 million users, generating 30 million rides every day.