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The Uber-For-Bikes Startup Is Now Officially Part of Uber (qz.com)
Uber's first acquisition under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is of Jump Bikes, a startup that rents out shared electric dockless bikes in San Francisco and Washington DC. "The deal comes two months after Uber partnered with Jump in San Francisco to make bike rentals available through the Uber app," reports Quartz. From the report: TechCrunch reports that the deal was valued at close to $200 million. Jump, which launched in 2008 as Social Bicycles, had raised about $15 million in funding. In January the company became the first in San Francisco to receive a permit for a dockless e-bike program. Jump's team will stay "independent and focused on growth vs. integration," with CEO Ryan Rzepecki reporting directly to Khosrowshahi, Uber's CEO told his company in an email this morning (April 9). In a post on Medium, Rzepecki said Khosrowshahi's leadership made Jump feel more comfortable with the deal. "We could see the shift in the company once Dara was named CEO as he began leading with humility and in a way that we felt reflected our values," Rzepecki wrote.
How the hell does a broke company buy another broke company? Guess I need to tune into this week's Silicon Valley to find out.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
I see lots of electric rental bikes in Europe. They all have a dock, so they can get charged up. Dockless bike = dead battery?
Uber, which has never generated a penny of profit and is losing money at the rate of a billion dollars a quarter, just spent $200 Million of investor's money on a pointless, worthless company because . . . . because fuck you, that's why.
dockless is like Mountain View where there are little yellow bikes laying around everywhere. You can even find them in the local creek
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
$200 MILLION sounds like a LOT of bike rentals
We'll make it work as soon as we figure out this little car rental thingie.
The "Uber for" moniker is used to describe gig economy stuff where you're workers are paid piecemeal instead of in wages & benefits.
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It's a glorious Chinese invention that is now being copies by the west, much like paper or compass once.
Ezekiel 23:20
Gonna make me a 'home rolled' electric car.
How many ebike batteries will I have to loot and pillage to outrun a 100D? How much is the cash rental cost/bike?
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Dysillusioned beyond reason, UBER-think is a ' too big to fail' dystopia in-wait. Lehman Brother's $639B Chapter 11 would be the USDollar value-at-risk target to beat. It is in a race for bragging rights to the take down the USD when it files for chapter 11. We have a ways to go before this ride is over
It's a glorious Chinese invention that is now being copies by the west, much like paper or compass once.
99% of the shared-bikes in China are not electric. They are pedal powered.
There are some battery powered e-bikes, but I have no idea how they get charged. I have never seen one in a "dock", and have never even seen a dock for them. They are just parked randomly on the street like the pedal powered Ofo and Mobikes. Maybe someone comes in the middle of the night to charge them.
The pedal powered bikes seem way more popular, most likely because of the price. One RMB (15 cents) for 30 minutes. You use your phone to scan the QR-code sticker on the bike, and then your phone displays a four digit code that unlocks the bike. You ride it anywhere, get off, re-engage the lock, and walk away.
The bikes are everywhere. There are dozens or even hundreds on every block in Shanghai.
So how do the bike companies make money renting the bikes for so little, while dealing with theft, damage, maintenance, etc? Anwer: They don't. Both Ofo and Mobike are losing millions trying to crush each other out of the market. Once one of them goes out of business, or (more likely) they merge, the price will go up.
I see lots of electric rental bikes in Europe. They all have a dock, so they can get charged up. Dockless bike = dead battery?
Dockless bikes get their batteries charged while the users pedal.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Paying $200 million for a company that is losing money and has only raised $15 million is utter madness.
The real action, as anyone who walks the streets of San Francisco can see, is in dockless electric razor scooters from Bird and LimeBike. Those things are everywhere now and are hella good.
$1 to unlock then 15c per minute to use. Faster and cheaper for getting around downtown than an Uber ride.
Cheaper rate for one with a dead battery?
Cheaper still for dead battery and bottom of hill?
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
The company swaps out the battery every few days or when they get low.
Still better than the literal mountains of bikes dumped outside large businesses in China.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Can someone explain exactly what this means to a non-hipster like myself?
Gladly! What happened is that Uber execs in California see bicycles whizzing around them all day blowing signals and stop signs, and the thought formed, "Hey! These guys are already thinking the Uber way!"
Cheaper rate for one with a dead battery?
Cheaper still for dead battery and bottom of hill?
Possibly. In China, shared-bikes are sometimes cheaper or free if you are going from an area where they have accumulated to an area where they are scarce.
You'd have to pay, kids might make a little extra money. I bike that won't roll on the flat isn't helping you get around.
People fat enough that they should be charging all day, will be the last to consider it.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
What exactly is electric about them? Just some cellphone like gadget that says where they are?
Pedal assist would be cool, but that's too much juice to get charged that way. Tho I gotta say a self driving trike would be cool, and who cares if it crashes.
-The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
I guess you haven't tripped over them trying to navigate the movie theater parking lot at night. If it were a huge pile of bikes at least it would have been consolidated and out of the general walking traffic.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Luckily I live in a soulless, polluting, sprawl of a suburb. Biking is very impractical here
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
They're bikes that you can rent for a short term. The dockless bit means that you can leave them anywhere. They were rolled out here a while ago by a Chinese-owned company. You install their app and can then use it to unlock any bikes you find (they also have GPS and send their location periodically, so you can see where the nearest ones are), then you pay a small amount for as long as the bike is assigned to you, and then you leave them.
They're more expensive than just buying a cheap bike if you cycle a lot, but if you're just visiting then they're a fairly convenient way of getting a bike. Unfortunately, unlike the docked versions that are common in big cities, the lack of well-defined locations means that you may find that you want one and the nearest one is miles away. They also are left in silly places by their last rider, so they clutter up the area a bit. Oh, and they're usually ridden by people who don't cycle regularly and so you need to give them quite a lot of space because the odds that they're about to do something dangerous are pretty high...
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I live in San Jose. I have to visit Mountain View to get out of the soulless, polluting, sprawling suburb. SJ is a million people and a tiny downtown and many square miles of suburbs and cul-de-sacs. Mountain View was a nice little town with a cute downtown area, but now Mountain View has become a buffer zone around the Googleplex.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
https://momentummag.com/hopr-i... if that's TL:DR, when you sign up you get a battery. You charge it, you carry it, you install it. When done, take your battery.
Can someone explain exactly what this means to a non-hipster like myself?
Lots of stolen bikes followed by the eventual shutdown of the company! It has been tried before and has failed everytime due to theft!
Uber, which has never generated a penny of profit and is losing money at the rate of a billion dollars a quarter, just spent $200 Million of investor's money on a pointless, worthless company because . . . . because fuck you, that's why.
Nothing to really add to this but I agree 100%!