Chinese bicycle-sharing firm HelloRide allowed to expand S’pore fleet tenfold

SINGAPORE - A year after

setting up shop in the Republic

, Chinese bicycle-sharing giant HelloRide has secured approval to expand its current fleet of 1,000 shared bicycles here tenfold.

In response to queries, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Saturday that HelloRide has been awarded a full licence to operate a fleet of up to 10,000 shared bicycles in Singapore until June 30, 2025.

It will make HelloRide the second-largest bicycle-sharing operator in the Republic behind current market leader Anywheel, which has an approved fleet size of up to 30,000 bicycles.

The third remaining operator, SG Bike, currently has an approved fleet size of 1,500 shared bicycles, down from 5,000 a year ago.

Anywheel and SG Bike both hold full licences.

In all, the number of shared bicycles allowed to be deployed on Singapore’s streets is now 41,500.

This is a far cry from the more than 200,000 shared bicycles that were allowed on the island at the height of the bike-sharing wave in early 2018.

At the time, there were as many as seven different bicycle-sharing operators here.

But mounting financial difficulties and the introduction of LTA’s licensing regime in 2018 led to the exit of several major players, such as ofo and oBike, which left a mess of uncollected bikes and unpaid user refunds.

HelloRide, which is backed by Chinese conglomerate Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group, was the first Chinese company to be allowed to operate a shared bicycle service in Singapore since then.

The operator was initially given a “sandbox” licence valid for up to a year, after which the company had to apply for a full licence that would allow it to operate a fleet larger than 1,000 bikes.

LTA said it considered a range of factors in assessing HelloRide’s application for a full licence.

These included the company’s fleet utilisation rate, as well as HelloRide’s track record in managing indiscriminate parking, and fulfilling licence conditions and performance standards.

LTA noted that more than 90 per cent of shared bicycle users end their trips at designated bicycle parking areas today.

This, it said, is the result of regulatory requirements such as QR-code parking, as well as ongoing efforts by bicycle-sharing operators to promote responsible parking habits.

In 2022, HelloRide said that it would be deploying its initial fleet of blue-coloured shared bikes mainly at East Coast Park, Marina Bay Sands, National Stadium, parks along the Kallang River, and a few other districts including Little India, Bugis and Boon Keng.

The company does not collect deposits, but users need to top up an e-wallet from which fares are deducted.

Anywheel’s chief executive, Mr Htay Aung, told The Straits Times it is important for bicycle-sharing operators to ensure they have the ability to manage their current fleets responsibly before thinking about further expansion.

“Any operator, including us, has to be very careful. We don’t want to demolish our existing efforts and go back to the old days when people thought negatively about bicycle sharing,” he said.

While he declined to share more details, Mr Htay Aung said Anywheel’s ridership has been growing by 7 per cent to 10 per cent month on month, and the company has been profitable since March.

With

more cycling paths being built across the island

, coupled with the Government’s continued efforts to promote a car-lite society, there is a bright future for bicycle-sharing in Singapore, he said.

“I don’t think we will go back to the heights of 2017 and 2018 in the next two to three years, but there will be significant growth,” he added.

For SG Bike, the picture has been much gloomier, with the company posting continued losses in the financial year ending June 30, 2022.

According to its latest financial statements, SG Bike had accumulated losses of $7.4 million in FY2022, compared with accumulated losses of $5.5 million in FY2021 and $3.9 million in FY2020.

In December 2022, SG Bike’s previous parent company, ISOTeam, sold its entire 48 per cent stake in the bike-sharing firm to a fund managed by Atlas Asset Management.

Asked about its decision to reduce its fleet size to 1,500, an SG Bike spokesman said this was mainly due to existing issues around theft and vandalism of its shared bikes, as well as to reconsolidate resources amid the restructuring of the company.

“SG Bike is currently refocusing our efforts and resources to provide better focused services, while looking at new bicycles, technology and system solutions, with the goal to increase our fleet size and offerings in the future,” the spokesman added.

In the meantime, SG Bike said it was happy to see other shared bicycle operators continue to provide residents with more commuting options.

Anywheel’s Mr Htay Aung agreed.

He said: “I always welcome competition, because competition makes everyone better. So, it is good to see other operators doing well.”