Ride-hailing giant Didi to launch bike share service

China's Didi Chuxing, the world's largest ride-hailing company, is to launch its own bike sharing service by the end of January, according to a report by 36kr.com on Thursday.

Didi Chuxing [File photo: VCG]

It has been reported that Didi will put about six million bikes into the market in 2018. Most of the bikes will come from Bluegogo, which was reportedly purchased by Didi recently. The Didi service will start in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Bluegogo has an operational license in these first-tier cities, which Didi needs to operate.

Didi has invested significantly in Ofo, a Beijing-based bicycle sharing company. Didi was aiming to trigger a merger between Ofo and Mobike, the world's largest shared bicycle operator. Ofo has resisted this move, however, and in November 2017 several senior executives left Ofo and returned to roles at Didi.

Bluegogo [File photo: VCG]

For Didi, the purchase of Bluegogo has the potential to provide a relatively easy entry into the share bike market. The new service also has the potential to bring in a huge amount of money through Didi's portable payment app. According to official statistics, share bikes apps have become one of the most frequently used portable payment apps, with more than 20 million transactions made each day using Ofo and Mobike apps alone.

With Mobike supported by Tencent, Ofo by Alibaba, and now Bluegogo by Didi Chuxing, share bikes have become a major field of battle for China's tech behemoths.