China’s bike-sharing giant Ofo has ordered only about 80k bicycles from bike manufacturer Shanghai Phoenix so far this year, far less than the anticipated 5 million bikes per year, in part because some Chinese cities have banned the further deployment of shared bikes, according to China’s tech news service Technode.
Ofo was rumored to be on the verge of going out of business for running low on cash but landed a $280M lifesaver from Alibaba two months ago. Its archrival Mobike was acquired by Tencent-backed lifestyle e-commerce platform Meituan-Dianping last month, raising the question of whether bike-sharing business is financially feasible.
Source: Technode