Mobike is about to make its big debut in the United Kingdom, officially launching in Manchester and Salford later this month.
One of China's biggest bike share companies, Mobike operates around five million rentable bicycles. As part of its European (and global) expansion, it will arrive in the UK on June 29, initially with 1,000 bikes.
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Mobike has not announced yet the price for its Manchester riders.
The Manchester Evening News says Mobikes are "WAY better than the Boris bikes," the taxpayer-funded rental bikes launched in 2010 under then-London mayor Boris Johnson.
The 'Uber for bikes' craze has taken off in China, with the model rapidly expanding to many cities.
Mobike won't be the only one in the UK, however. Ofo, one of its most succesful competitors in the Middle Kingdom, recently launched in Cambridge with 50 bikes as part of a pilot program. Cambridge's Ofo riders pay just GBP0.5 for 30 minutes, with no deposit fee.
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Joseph Seal-Driver, Ofo's UK Operations Director, said that he would like the platform to be in at least three UK cities by the end of the year.
"An obvious place to go is London," he says. "That's where there are real problems with congestion and air quality in particular."
Andy Burnham, the new mayor of Greater Manchester, said that he want to see more people swapping their cars for bikes.
[Image via TechCrunch]
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