China has seen a surge in shared items including bikes, basketballs, phone chargers, cars and, now, umbrellas.
At least two umbrella share services have popped up in China in recent months, just in time for the plum rain season: Molisan and Hujie Web. Shanghai-based startup Molisan has already begun trial runs in Guangzhou and Fuzhou, Sixth Tone reports.
Last week, shared umbrellas from an undisclosed startup began popping up across Shanghai—until they suddenly vanished.
Starting May 23, umbrellas were available for public use in the Lujiazui area. The umbrellas could easily be accessed by downloading an app, paying a deposit of RMB20 and then scanning the QR code to use the umbrellas for the low price of just RMB1 per day.
But by May 25, they seemed to have disappeared, with some social media users claiming that all the umbrellas had completely gone missing in under a day.
City administrators were rumored to have removed the umbrellas. However, an executive at a shared umbrella startup said they received no notice about removal. They said they would further cooperate with law enforcement to get to the bottom of the issue.
The company also noted that many of their umbrellas went missing due to a lack of GPS devices to track their whereabouts.
At least two other shared umbrella companies plan to debut their product in Shanghai this month. The umbrellas will be strategically placed in areas with "large crowds."
According to Netease, one umbrella share company decided to test out the feasibility of the system on Wednesday by making a batch of 100 umbrellas in Lujiazui free of charge. Users were not required to download any app, and the umbrellas were not locked up or trackable by GPS. But their experiment to see if users would return the umbrellas seems to have failed — Netease reporters said there wasn't a trace of the umbrellas anywhere in the area.
[Images via ECNS, EastDay]
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