Gobee dockless bikes pull out of French operations

The dockless bike sharing service Gobee has pulled out of France after a large proportion of its fleet were damaged or stolen. “It is with great sadness that we are officially announcing to our community the termination of Gobee.bike service in France...” the Hong Kong-based service announced.

The company, which became the first dockless bikesharing operator in France back in October 2017, had more than a thousand bikes stolen and almost 3,400 damaged nationwide, according to the Guardian. 

Over the last year, there has been a significant increase in dockless bikesharing schemes appearing in cities around the world. Compared to conventional bike-sharing schemes with docking stations, users can leave the bikes wherever they want and can unlock and pay for the bikes using a mobile app, rather than at a kiosk or docking station. There is also considerably less initial infrastructure investment required by the operator, which has allowed many more operators to join the market. The downside is that 'dockless' means more vulnerable to damage and theft. Representatives of oBike recovered 42 bikes out of Melbourne's Yarra River in one day, while Dallas is planning to restrict the number of bicycles and where they can be parked after receiving 800 complaints about the bicycles. While infrastructure costs may be less, maintenance costs appear to be higher with Gobee making 6,500 bike repairs across France since October.

Gobee.bike said: “It was sad and disappointing to realise that a few individuals could ruin such a beautiful and promising project. We had to come to the conclusion that it could not be viable and there was no other choice for us than shutting down, nationwide.” 

While Gobee may have left, Bike, Ofo and Mobike are remaining in the French capital.