SG Bike to acquire bike-sharing licence from rival Mobike; set to become largest player in Singapore

SINGAPORE — SG Bike is set to become the largest bike-sharing operator in Singapore, once it acquires a licence transfer from rival Mobike Singapore.

Both operators announced in joint statement early on Tuesday (Aug 13) that they had submitted an application to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to transfer Mobike’s bike-sharing licence to SG Bike.

According to the statement, the deal is tentatively scheduled to be completed by Sept 13 this year.

If the licence transfer is approved, the operators said that SG Bike, which is now allowed a maximum fleet size of 3,000 bikes, will be able to enlarge its customer base and service areas to offer “even more first- and last-mile journeys to commuters”.

Mobike is currently allowed a maximum fleet size of 25,000 bikes.

The statement added that Mobike users with deposits can request for a refund now, or wait for the deal’s completion. Thereafter, the deposits in Mobike accounts will be converted into SG Bike account credits “without expiry for usage convenience”.

“Users will also have the option to opt out and collect their refund from SG Bike,” said the operators, adding that more information will be made available at a later date.

Once the approval from the LTA is given, and the backend integration of systems are complete, SG Bike users will be able to unlock bicycles from both brands using the SG Bike app.

Existing Mobike users wishing to transfer their account balances and ride passes to SG Bike can also do so, once they download the SG Bike app.

Mr Sean Tay, Chief Operating Officer of SG Bike, said: “We welcome Mobike and their users to our SG Bike family.”

With the increased bicycle fleet size, he said the company will now be able to serve more areas in Singapore with “strategically deployed” bicycles.

He added that brand, which was established in 2017, will also be rolling out more campaigns and promotions in the near future.

Mr Steve Milton, Head of Mobike International PR, said: “Combining Mobike and SG Bike is the ideal solution for Mobike in Singapore as it maintains the continuity that has been established since Mobike launched in Singapore in 2017.”

In March this year, TODAY reported that major bike-sharing operators were pulling out of the market amid financial troubles.

One of them was Mobike, which applied to the LTA to surrender its bicycle-sharing licence on March 11.

Under the Parking Places Act, a bicycle-sharing licence can only be surrendered with the written consent of the LTA.

A spokesperson from Beijing-based on-demand services company Meituan Dianping Group, which acquired Mobike last April, told TODAY that the decision to pull out of Singapore was “part of a plan to rationalise Mobike’s operations in South-east Asia”.

Last September, the LTA awarded full bike-sharing licences to Ofo, Mobike and SG Bike.

At the time, there were 100,000 shared bikes in Singapore, and the licences placed caps on each operator’s fleet. As a result, Ofo and Mobike had to downsize their fleets to a maximum of 25,000 bicycles each.

But since then, Ofo had its licence suspended and was told to clear out all of its bikes from public places.