Dec. 11 (NBD) -- China's bike-sharing behemoth Mobike Technology Co., Ltd. is beefing up its expansion overseas. The 18-month-old startup has reached its ambitious goal of operating in 200 cities globally. 

Florian Bohnert, head of Mobike's Global Partnerships, gave an exclusive interview to NBD Friday night before the opening of a fireside chat hosted by Startup Grind, a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, shedding light on Mobike's overseas expansion, challenges, and advantages. 

The first foreign employee at Mobike, Bohnert, said that it is the opening sound of the lock of Mobike's prototype bike and universal character of the bikesharing idea that motivate him to join Mobike, rather than the billions of dollars they could raise.

Florian Bohnert (Photo/NBD)

Keeping pace with demands is the biggest challenge

NBD: How many overseas cities has Mobike entered? 

Bohnert: We started in China in April 2016, and the first city that we started was Shanghai. So it's been about 18 months since our first city. And within that 18 months, we've seen exceptional growth, now we've entered over 200 cities worldwide. Most of our cities are still in China, but we have about 11 countries outside of China, including the UK, Italy, Germany, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and in each and every single country, we have at least one operating city. The latest city that we launched was Berlin, Germany, and that was our 200th city. 

NBD: What's Mobike's development strategy? How does Mobike choose cities?

Bohnert: There are a few criteria. I can share some of those. 

The first one is gonna be the number of analytic criteria that we have related to the city, the population, the market penetration, some items like this, that's very important criteria for us. 

Another very important criteria is the local government's support. This is one major difference between Mobike and all the other colored bikes. Mobike always worked with the local governments, and we launched partnership with them. So if the local government is very supportive, and wants to help us launch quickly on a larger scale, that's something really good. That fits in our international strategy. 

The third thing I can mention is the partnership that we built with the UN Environment. On a global level, we work with them to promote this kind of solution to more cities. So that's also something that will help us in our international strategy, to work with them in some cities that we want to promote more biking.

NBD: Have you encountered obstacles during the process of expansion?

Bohnert: I wouldn't call them obstacles. We have to localize the service, and we have to adapt the solution to whatever city we want to operate in. We can't expect the users in Florence, Italy to behave exactly like the users in China. So we have to adapt the service, the application, the bike, but most of it remains the same. So I wouldn't again call them obstacles, I would just call them localization items, how do we take this idea, and how do we transform it to fit perfectly locally in those countries.

NBD: What do you think is the biggest challenge?

Bohnert: I think the biggest challenge is being able to keep the pace with the demands, and to make sure that we can meet the needs exactly of every single government, because it's very different to talk to the government of Singapore and talk to the government of the UK, as there is different culture. 

Top advantage lies in technology   

NBD: Some bikesharing projects have failed overseas, and cities like New York have launched similar projects themselves for the public good. How can Mobike make it way out as a commercial project? 

Bohnert: New York city, along with about 800 other cities worldwide, do have the traditional model of bike share, which is based on the station. But Mobike, in that sense, is completely different because we're dockless. And we leverage technology to be able to operate the fleet of bikes. So it's an innovation compared to the current model. And this innovation is more reliable, more affordable both for the government and users. We're able to do much more, and we're able to provide more services to the users and to the cities with our model. 

NBD: So you think the dockless parking and cheap prices are your biggest advantages.  

Bohnert: The biggest advantage is definitely the technology, cause we're the only company worldwide that has a GPS and a SIM card in every single one of the 8 million bikes we operate, and we're the only one to have this technology and to have this scale. So that's definitely our biggest advantage, and that's what makes us unique. And once we have this, there are a number of side effects that come along, for example, the high operational efficiency, because we have the GPS, we can have the highest efficiency. This will also help the government to roll out that scheme, because we can work closely with them and we can give them insights based on the data that we have, and we'll also help them make better decisions. And finally, the attitude that we have is very responsible. 

NBD: Dockless parking actually have caused a series of urban management and safety issues. Does Mobike have effective solutions to solve these problems?

Bohnert: So the bike is the tip of the iceberg, the bikes on the street is what people can see and everything we talk about.

Since the beginning, since Mobike was created, the bikes are only part of the solution. The entire solution is bigger, and it also comprises the data management, and also some kind of smart parking. Ever since we launched a year and a half ago, we've been proactively pushing this entire solution, so it's not only the bikes. 

Education is something we're also very proactively pushing, and it is also our responsibility. 

China Merchant Bank helps Mobike manage users' deposit

NBD: How does Mobike attract users overseas? 

Bohnert: Whether it's abroad or in China, it is fairly similar, because the solution, as I mentioned, is convenient, reliable, and affordable. And our bikes are visible. When we launch to a new city abroad, the service promotes itself because people will see the bike at the train station or the metro station, it's very easy for them to download the app, register, and get on the bike and go to their destination. The sweet spot for Mobike are short urban commutes. We expect users to use Mobike for the first and last mile. 

NBD: What do you think of the previously reported capital issues facing bike-sharing companies?

Bohnert: I've never heard about this. Mobike is the leader in the industry, we have the best business practices, we have a number of Chinese and international investors that are top-tier, including China Merchant Bank and Foxconn. China Merchant Bank also helps us from the financial side to manage the deposit, so there is absolutely no problem in managing the deposit or financial situation of the company. 

NBD: Has Mobike become profitable?

Bohnert: The path to profitability is very clear and our business model is very strong and proving. Now we are still at an exciting period of growth. There are a number of cities worldwide that need solution like Mobike, so we are still very much growing internationally.

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn