Shared bikes follow Premier Li to Australia

2017-04-03
english.gov.cn/The Beijing News

As Premier Li Keqiang visited Australia, a Chinese bike-sharing company entered the Australian market.

According to media reports, Bluegogo submitted a business case to Sydney municipal government. Sydney Mayor Clover Moore said she will fully support the bike-sharing concept and believes it will better serve tourists in the city.

In January, Mobike founder was invited by Premier Li to attend a symposium. The Premier said this company helped develop manufacturing through the development of the internet and service industry. He stressed encouraging innovation in new industries and new business models, while exploring discreet regulations, so as to make the market more tolerant, orderly and full of vigor.

Bike-sharing is the latest innovation development in China. The bike-sharing business is developing very rapidly in China and is starting operations in the wider global market. Since the end of last year, bike-sharing companies, such as Mobike and ofo, have started business in Singapore, the United States and United Kingdom and were warmly welcomed by foreign users.

At the South by Southwest (SXSW) exhibition in mid-March, China’s bike-sharing aroused the strong interest of many foreigners, including the mayor of Austin, Texas and the council leader of Manchester, England. And many users tested riding a bike by scanning the QR code.

The rise of bike-sharing enables China to stand at the top of this mode of transportation, Bloomberg commented, adding that it originated in China and is entirely China’s innovation.

In fact, bike-sharing is just one example of Chinese mass entrepreneurship and innovation.

A story from Financial Times once mentioned that Facebook had borrowed the idea of the “red envelopes” from WeChat, that SF Express, a Chinese logistics company, had used a drone for delivery earlier than Amazon, and that smartphones made by Huawei had adopted double cameras earlier than Apple Inc.

Chinese enterprises have risen to the forefront of global innovation from just being followers, the Financial Times said.

The trend of “Internet Plus”, since proposed by Premier Li in the government work report, has become an accelerator for mass entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as speeding up Chinese economic transformation.

A manager from JP Morgan said, as the Chinese government is promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation, technology, the internet and 415 million millennials are creating a “new economy” in China.

The “new economy” is invigorating traditional industries. For example, a bike-sharing company has cooperated with Phoenix, an established bicycle manufacturer to produced the first batch of speed-variable shared bikes for the Singaporean market.

Lianhe Zaobao, a Singaporean newspaper, said the shared bikes from China have broken the stereotype of cheap Chinese products with their extraordinary design, remarkable craftsmanship and quality.

The new technologies, industries and businesses keep appearing, which show the energy and vigor of the Chinese economy, The Wall Street Journal said.