China's bike sharing system to be launched in Vienna

A woman tries out an Ofo bike at an industry expo in Beijing. [Photo by Zou Hong/For China Daily]

VIENNA — China's station-free bicycle-sharing-system is to be launched in Vienna, capital of Austria, on Sunday, the Beijing-based Chinese bicycle sharing company, Ofo, told Xinhua on Friday.

Found in 2014 as a student project, Ofo was supported by the internet technology and is pushing forward its station-free bicycle-sharing-system, which would allow bike riders to share the Ofo bikes by using app to scan and unlock the bikes, searching the bikes available in the city by their smart phone.

Unlike the traditional bike sharing system, no bike stations are built, commuters could leave the bikes any corners allowed in the city.

The company has launched 8 million bikes worldwide, the major market is still in China, especially in the large cities like Beijing and Shanghai, meanwhile, the company is trying to explore the oversee market.

Ofo told Xinhua, after evaluation, due to conveniences for bike riders in the city, Vienna is chosen as the first city in mainland European countries to initiate the pilot project of the station-free bike-sharing-system.

Two hundred bikes is set to be launched in the second district in the city of Vienna on Sunday. In the testing process, all the sharing of the Ofo bikes are free of charge.

It is not decided yet how many bikes are needed in the city of Vienna, the station-free bike-sharing company is monitoring the pilot project.

However, in the city of Vienna, there is already a running bike sharing system, supported by the government of Vienna. The Vienna city-bike is considered as the strong competitor of Ofo's bike system.

Another Chinese company, Mobike, has launched similar bike-sharing scheme in the West of London and in the northern English city of Manchester.