Focus on Arts and Ecology

Once hailed by state media as one of the “four great new inventions in modern China”, sharebiking – the dockless bike craze that swept China over the past few years – appears to be in trouble. Ofo, one of the pioneers of the sharebike business model, was reportedly facing financial troubles in the autumn and is now in a debt crisis. The South China Morning Post reports that 11.7 million customers were waiting (some at Ofo’s headquarters and some online) to reclaim their deposits this week. The company was sued by Shanghai Phoenix Bicycles and Tianjin Flying Pigeon Cycle Manufacturing as well as logistics services providers Best and Deppon Logistics over missed payments. The CEO wrote a letter to the company saying that he had considered filing for bankruptcy but wanted to find a way to keep the enterprise afloat. In an interview with Morning News, lawyers said that under bankruptcy law, repaying users’ deposits would not be a priority if the company does end up going under.