Movements | June 11th, 2018
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Kudos to michal Naka for the help!
Big News
GV is putting $250m into Lime. Some great network utilization data points came out, too: users have taken a total of 4.2 million rides, one million of which were between May 5 and May 27. According to Axios, one source says each Lime scooter is used, on average, between 8 and 12 times per day.| Axios
While last week it was reported that Lyft was close to acquiring Motivate for around $250m, we’re now reading that Uber may have bid as well | Axios
Micromobility
12 companies applied for permits to run scooter services in San Francisco: Bird, Spin, Lime, ofo, Scoot, Skip, Lyft, Uber, Razor (90s kids, rejoice!), Hopr (Cyclehop), USSCooter, Jump, Ridecell | Carolyn Said
Jump launches in Berlin. Notable because Uber has historically not been able to operate in that market | Dara Khosrowshahi
People love scooters | Kanyi Maqubela
People hate scooters | Mike Isaac
Chinese bikeshare giant Ofo has opened up a new revenue stream with an on-bike advertising product. This is the first step towards more advertising subsidized trips. | technode
And Ofo is getting into the scooter game | PitchBook
Interview with Sanjay Dastoor, CEO of Skip Scooters | Business Insider
Spin’s Layer Protocol whitepaper shows a decentralized way to manage incentives, payment, and reputation for sharing economy services like scooters, bikes, and cars | Docsend
TNCs
Lyft updates their mobile app to incorporate public transportation, emphasize shared rides, and introduce multi-modal trips. | The Verge
They allude to a multi-modal routing experience that will grow to include transit and maybe bikes and scooters over time
It’s interesting to note that the redesign of the app and the content of their blog post clearly lay the foundation for users to weight the time and dollar cost tradeoffs across a bunch of different mode choices
A new feature to shift pick up points to achieve an ideal combination of walking and riding for shorter total travel times
The Information points out that Uber and Lyft’s recent moves into bikesharing and multi-modal trips are likely inspired by a playbook developed and successfully implemented by Didi in China | The Information
Lyft Spots — the company is proactively diverting traffic from places where vehicles probably shouldn’t be stopping to pick up / drop off passengers, such as busy streets or bike lanes, to less busy side streets. This is most notably happening on Valencia street in San Francisco, where they have diverted over 20,000 trips. | SF Chronicle
PDX has increased their TNC pick up / drop off fee to $3. This offsetts decline in parking revenue and mitigating congestion at airports. | Michal Naka
Ola’s revenue jumped 70% since last year to $192m | Tech in Asia
Gett raises another $80m | TechCrunch
Product Launches and Updates
Apple Watch will be able to predictively launch the Mobike app based on a user’s daily riding habits and unlock directly from the watch| Michal Naka
Apple brings their Maps to the web with MapKit.JS | Apple
LinkedIn adds commute times to job listings | TechCrunch
Lime is partnering with PayNearMe and making huge progress towards making access to their service more equitable. They now have a low income fare option that can be purchased at a number of popular stores, which is great if you don’t have a credit card. Similarly, they have unveiled a feature that allows users to unlock bikes via SMS, which is great if you don’t have a smartphone or can’t afford a data plan. Well done.| Lime
Data
US Auto Debt is about the same as Student Loan debt but we tend to hear much less about it. This is somewhat concerning, especially if you believe thatthe resale value of cars dropping significantly in the next 10 years. | Parker Thompson
Seattle DOT released a great set of slides on their dockless bikeshare pilot | SDOT
93.2% of trips are ‘utility’ trips — not for exercise and recreational, but going to work/school/errands/socializing
75% used bike share to access transit stations, suggesting that this is a compelling first/last mile solution
Roughly 1/3 of the city’s population has tried bikeshare (!) and 74% hold a favorable view of it
Cities
Singapore requires bike-share operators to implement geofencing features that restrict bike drop off to 1,100 specified parking zones in the city. This could be a model for US cities struggling with bikes and scooters being left in inconvenient places. | SCMP
Dockless Bikeshare is coming to Philadelphia before the end of the year | Asher