YouBike and oBike are both companies that do the same job – rent bikes to people who can’t afford their own bikes. But why did oBike fail to do its job while YouBike succeeded?

Background

oBike was founded in February 2017 by Shi Yi and Edward Chen from Singapore. oBike soon expanded to 24 different countries.

YouBike was founded in 2009, but it was only available in Xinyi district. Soon, however, YouBike was available in many different places.



To rent an oBike, customers have to use a special app that they download on their phones. On the other hand, to rent a YouBike, customers have to go to YouBike stations to rent them.

To return an oBike, customers can just park it anywhere they want and lock the bike to stop the timer. The app will automatically use the customer’s credit card to pay for the rental fee. But for YouBike, customers have to bring it to a station (the place where customers rent/return the bikes) and then put it into the lock. That stops the timer and they will have to pay with their EasyCard.

Why oBike failed

oBike failed to do its job because the company tried to make it convenient for the customers. The idea to park oBike anywhere the customer wants is a bad idea. For example, there are reports that the Taiwan government got complaints about oBikes making the environment messy, parking in scooter parking spots, or even blocking driveways. This shows that oBikes made the customers’ life more convenient, but not other people’s.

oBike also does not have a professional repair team, which led to them having to continuously produce more and more usable bikes to keep the customers satisfied. This process made the company go downhill really fast. They spent too much money on producing these bikes but did not make a profit out of it.

Many oBikes got tickets from the government, some even were towed away by tow trucks and oBike had to pay the fees to the government. According to the Taiwanese government, oBike had to pay a fee of 5.1 million NTD because their bikes became such a problem. This is the biggest reason why oBike went broke and was forced to shut down.

Why YouBike succeeded

YouBike is one of the best public bike renting systems in this world. YouBike, created by the Taiwanese government, is a huge success. In contrast to what oBike did, there are specific parking/renting areas. So the whole city looks a lot cleaner.

YouBike also has a professional repair team that repairs the bikes every once in a while. This way, they save a lot more money. They don’t have to continuously produce new bicycles, but they can still keep the customers satisfied with the quality of the bikes. YouBike is a lot more professional compared to oBike, which led them to huge success.

During 2014, YouBike had 22 million rentals, which doubled from previous years. Soon, there will be more areas to rent YouBike which will attract more and more people to try it out. YouBike’s smart, efficient business plan made them grow and become successful.