Fresh on the Radar Screen: New Bike Sharing Models from China -- "the Uber of bicycles"!

Ofo bikes modeled in China

Now this would be a potentially interesting and profitable bicycle business, as reported by the FT today or the Guardian a month earlier, or this from Techcrunch about Mobike (a provider) raising $215 million.

The numbers are Chinese -- 500,000 shared bikes in Shanghai expected by June 2017, all since Q2 of 2016.

Who will figure it out first in Japan or the USA? Can an "Uber of bicycles" supplant the government-organized bike share programs with an innovative smart-phone empowered, easy to use and low-cost version? The end of the "mama chari" as we know it? Or too many "what if's?" to answer for this to work in Japan?

Ofo is already starting in the USA with 20,000 bikes.