Dozens of young companies have spent billions of dollars competing for online car hailing and bike sharing in major Asian cities from Beijing to Jakarta, US media reported on June 19. At present, the competition to change the appearance of urban traffic is still going on, and a competition for the electric scooter market is about to be staged.
According to a report on the website of the Wall Street Journal on June 1, the sharing scooter industry is growing in American cities and other developed countries such as Spain and France. As the industry moves into the Asia Pacific region, local start-ups have been seizing market share for a long time, preparing to fight with global companies such as the "lime" bike sharing company in the United States.
Thirteen companies, including lime, have applied for licenses to do business in Singapore, saying that Singapore is not only an attractive market in itself, but also a gateway to Southeast Asia with a population of 600 million.
Several of the 13 companies are already operating in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia.
The electric scooter market in Asia is just beginning. According to the statistics of India's auto forecast company, the annual revenue of Electric Scooter Market in Asia is less than $10 million, while that of the United States and Europe is $315 million and $251 million respectively.
But many in the industry believe that the Asian market may have potential for profit. The region has an emerging middle class, rapid urbanization and more than half of the world's population. Congested traffic also increases the appeal of alternative vehicles.
"I think [sharing scooters] can be massively promoted in Asia," said Colin Lin, a former public transport official and founder of Singapore mobile app chain people, which specializes in travel planning Lin said that compared with other big cities, Asian cities use a lot of public transport, which makes them very suitable for connecting the first mile and the last mile through electric scooters.
For many people in the industry, this dominant position is reminiscent of online car Hailing services. Some of the newly established start-ups mentioned above employ employees of former online car Hailing companies.
Uber eventually conceded defeat in China and Southeast Asia, acquiring minority stakes in its regional rivals didi travel and GRABB taxi. The new electric scooter start-up wants to replicate grab's success by understanding the needs of its customers and regulators in Asia, a market that is not as monolithic as Europe or the US.
There are two problems plaguing the industry, the report said. One is whether local knowledge is enough to lead to success, especially if well funded international competitors can spend a lot of money on long-term subsidies. Another question is how strong the industry's economic base is.
"It's a really local industry," said mark Inkster, chief business officer of electric scooter company BIM His company, which operates in Singapore, Australia and Malaysia, has raised $6.4 million from investors including Sequoia Capital and the San Francisco based founder fund.
"I think we've found the best position, we're big enough to form a economies of scale, but small enough to really understand how to operate across Asia," he said
BIM's localization strategy includes tracking the location of the scooter and automatically limiting its speed or stopping it completely in the no go zone. At the same time, its competitor, neuron travel, has designed a more stable scooter with a larger wheel size, which is more suitable for riding on more bumpy roads in cities in developing countries.
Other innovations include a two-dimensional code system to force users to park their cars in designated areas, thus avoiding the common situation of scooters in the United States and other places.
Talebard, which raised seed money from Singapore's transport operator, smult transport, said it had pioneered the system, although it is now widely used. Several start-ups say they are planning to produce a series of larger electric scooters.
