Chinese bike-sharing giant Hellobike wants to expand to Europe, management announced Monday, and there is a good chance the company will choose Paris as its starting point.
The Shanghai-based company has bid for the French capital’s tender for a dockless bike-sharing service in 2025, Manon Bouvet, the company’s spokeswoman for France, Belgium and Switzerland, told AFP.
Lime and Dott both currently operate dockless bike parks in Paris and have confirmed that they have also submitted a bid.
There is also a bicycle park with fixed bicycles in Paris, called Velib.
Hellobike plans to launch bids in other French cities as well as in Barcelona and Seville in Spain.
Parent company HelloRide operates seven million bicycles, as well as scooters and cars, in 500 cities in China.
Last year the company generated revenues of $2 billion.
The company also operates bike-sharing services in Singapore and Sydney.
HelloRide’s major shareholders include shopping platform Alibaba and its former subsidiary Ant Group, owner of payment service Alipay.
If Hello wins the tender in Paris, the company plans to assemble the planned 6,000 bicycles for the service in France and hire 60 employees to maintain the bikes.
tsz/jum/LyS/lth
