Lyft Follows Uber Into Bike-Sharing Lane, Buying Owner of CitiBike
Can someone explain the economics of services like this? I just get the feeling that these bike-sharing services are running on a good sales pitch and a market which seems obvious but isn&#x27;t really there.<p>There are probably four or five competing services in my city and yet I have never actually seen a single person actually riding them. There are certainly people riding bikes but it&#x27;s always their own bike.<p>Complications I See:<p>- There&#x27;s a pretty narrow window between a distance that&#x27;s too far to walk but impractical to hire a car. And since ride sharing is super cheap for this use-case it&#x27;s a tough market.<p>- It&#x27;s useless if people are unfit to drive: injury, tired, drunk, etc..<p>- It&#x27;s not great for going places with friends because it doesn&#x27;t take a very large group before someone isn&#x27;t fit to bike. Also, for 6 people each taking a bike is $24 for a 30 min ride. Any ride sharing company will be cheaper than that, you don&#x27;t have to work, and you&#x27;ll get there much faster than 30 min.<p>- Everyone except literally the current user of a dockless bike is going to hate them so you&#x27;re limited to where the company has docking stations. They&#x27;re going to be the fastest vandalized property.<p>- Anyone who&#x27;s actually into riding bikes will just buy one. If you&#x27;re going to be on them for an extended period of time you&#x27;re going to want one that&#x27;s light, comfortable, well maintained, and correctly sized for you. I would think these would be your loyal customers but it&#x27;s exactly the opposite of what they want.<p>- Technically you&#x27;re not guaranteed a bike back from wherever you go. Although in practice you probably will since in all likelihood you&#x27;re the only user of this particular service.<p>- Your biggest market would be commuters who want to save on paying for a car&#x2F;taxi&#x2F;subway but people with regular destinations should reasonably just buy a mid-tier bike.