China has issued national guidelines governing bike-sharing operations to address mounting complaints over an accumulation of millions of bikes on city streets. Users of bike-sharing services should register under their real names, controls on the parking of bikes will be tightened, offenders will be punished, and the use of the bikes by children under 12 is prohibited. China has around 70 bike-sharing brands, which have put more than 16 million bicycles on the streets and attracted more than 130 million users. By the end of June, the industry had registered 106 million customers, just a year after Mobike launched its services in Shanghai in April 2016. Around 14% of China’s 751 million internet users have now used smartphones to rent a bike. The industry has attracted billions in investment from the likes of Warburg Pincus, DST Global, Tencent and Alibaba.

Beijing-based bike-sharing firm Mobike announced the launch of bike-rental services in London, with a plan to operate 750 bikes in September. The company plans to expand to 200 cities globally. As Mobike is set to cover more countries, the company will explore more payment methods. The bikes are produced in China and then exported to overseas markets. Rival Ofo said it plans to operate a total of 6,000 shared bikes in Bangkok by the end of September. Now Mobike has rolled out more than 6 million bikes in over 150 cities globally, while Ofo said it has over 100 million users.