Wukong Bike: China's first bike-sharing casualty lasted five months

Wukong Bike (悟空单车), run by Chongqing Zhanguo Technology with registered capital of 100,000 yuan, launched in early 2017 in Chongqing under founder Lei Houyi, born 1991. It deployed 1,200 bicycles — about half in the University City area — and ran for only five months.

The bikes used mechanical locks instead of GPS smart locks, and roughly 90% of the fleet disappeared — stolen or lost — with only about one in ten recovered. Wukong raised no venture capital, relying on a 'partner' crowdfunding model: partners paid 1,100 yuan per bike for a promised 70% revenue share. In the same city, ofo was effectively offering free rides.

On 13 June 2017 the company announced it was ending service and exiting the market, refunding all partner funds, user balances and deposits. It lost more than 1 million yuan. At the end it had about 10,000 users, with each bike ridden three to four times a day — not enough to cover anything.

Wukong became the first confirmed closure of China's bike-sharing boom. Its exit was clean — every partner and user was refunded — but the diagnosis was blunt: a small player could not match the top tier's supply chain, hardware or pricing.