Gobee.bike

Gobee.bike launched in Hong Kong in April 2017 as the city's first dockless bike-sharing service: bright green bikes unlocked through an app after a HK$399 deposit. It expanded quickly, and by early 2018 its French operation had about 2,000 bikes in Paris and 150,000 registered users across the country.

France turned into a disaster. By February 2018 more than 1,000 bikes had been stolen, around 3,400 damaged and about 300 police complaints filed, with the company logging 6,500 repairs. Bikes were thrown into the Seine, stripped for parts and piled up in public spaces, and on February 24, 2018 Gobee.bike announced it was pulling out of France — the first bike-sharing operator to exit the market.

The home market followed. In July 2018, about 15 months after launch, Gobee.bike announced it was going bust, blaming its financial situation and the heavy cost of maintenance and recovery, and promising to refund the HK$399 deposits. The startup that had once signalled dockless bikes' arrival in Hong Kong wound down with little ceremony.

Gobee.bike was part of the global dockless bike-sharing gold rush that followed China's Ofo and Mobike, and its collapse previewed the model's core problem: cheap bikes parked in public spaces attract theft and vandalism at a rate that fares and deposits cannot pay for.