Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Transportation |
Founded | 2016 |
Founder | Lei Houyi |
Defunct | July 2017 |
Area served | Chongqing, China |
Products | Bicycle rentals |
Parent | Chongqing Zhanguo Technology |
Wukong Bicycle ( Chinese: 悟空) was a bicycle-sharing company based in Chongqing, China. The company operated a fleet of 1,200 bicycles in Chongqing from January to July 2017, ceasing operations after 90 percent of their bicycles were reported missing. [1]
The company was founded by entrepreneur Lei Houyi in 2016, inspired by the success of other bicycle-sharing systems in Beijing and Shanghai. [2] Houyi named the system "Wukong" after the monkey king Sun Wukong in the classic novel Journey to the West. [3] The system debuted in January 2017, with 1,200 bicycles serving 16,000 users in Chongqing, charging 0.5 yuan per ride. [4] It launched shortly after Ofo, a larger service based in Beijing, arrived in the city. [5] The bicycles, manufactured in small factories locally, came without GPS equipment used by larger companies. The lack of GPS equipment led to the theft of 90 percent of Wukong's fleet; additionally, the hilly terrain in Chongqing dissuaded use of the bicycles. [5] [6] Future models were planned come with GPS trackers, along with a national rollout to ten cities by June 2017. [4] On June 21, Wukong announced that it would cease operations within 30 days, retrieving its bicycles and refunding users. [3] Observers called it the first bankruptcy in the Chinese bicycle-sharing industry, which was amid a massive boom. [1]