Ctrip has taken part in a $215 million Series D funding round for Mobike, China's leading smartphone-enabled bicycle rental business.
James Liang, chairman of Ctrip, said:
“Ctrip has been following Mobike’s development with great interest because we see it as not just a convenient everyday way of getting from A to B, but also an extremely valuable tool for travellers to explore and discover cities.
"We are excited to work with Mobike to create even more exciting, seamless short distance travel experiences for people in more cities around China and internationally.”
Mobike has now raised more than $350 million, not bad for a business which only officially launched in Shanghai last April and is now present in nine cities. Its main rival in the smartphone-enabled bicycle rental business is Ofo. Taxi app Didi was involved in its $130 million Series C round last September.
The official release from lead investors Warburg Pincus and Tencent explains how Mobike works:
"The specially designed Mobikes are extremely durable and maintenance-free, and are equipped with GPS and proprietary smart-lock technology.
"This enables users to easily find a bike nearby anytime, anywhere using the Mobike smartphone app, and to unlock the bike using their phone.
"After reaching their destination, the user parks the bike at a suitable spot along the roadside and returns it by simply closing the lock, making the bike immediately available to other users nearby."
Liang's reference to bicycles as a way for travellers to explore and discover cities resonates with the "live like a local" mantra of many travel companies. Whether Ctrip will, say, create a new local tours product based around cycle routes is not discussed, but Ctrip's financial clout and mobile technology expertise means that someone somewhere in the organisation is thinking about how tech-enabled bicycle sharing can work within a full-service OTA.
Finally, as the bicycles are fitted with GPS, Mobike is able to track usage during a 24-hour period in Shanghai.
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Pivotal moment in 2016 – when Ctrip bought Skyscanner for $1.8 billion (Dec16)