Market: Chinese business models like Mobike are on the move to Europe: These start-ups want to make money with huge fleets of rental bikes, but in doing so they leave behind mountains of scrap – and are probably only interested in user data. In protest against an environmental award for Mobike by the UN, the two-wheeler purchasing cooperative ZEG is leaving the UN initiative Global Compact (UNGC).
The Kölner Zweirad-Einkaufs-Genossenschaft eG (ZEG) is leaving the Global Compact, a UN initiative that wants to promote good working conditions and environmental protection, among other things. The move comes in protest at the United Nations Environment Program's (UNEP) decision to name Chinese bike rental company Mobike its 2017 Champion of The Earth, the organisation's highest accolade.
Protest against rental bikes? That doesn't sound very plausible at first - shouldn't rental bikes be equated with gentle mobility, environmental protection and congestion relief? For example, when it comes to the "Call a Bike" bicycles of Deutsche Bahn, which are widespread in Germany and which are lined up waiting for users at their stations, that is certainly true. But Mobike and similar providers, who are being provided with gigantic sums of money by venture capitalists, seem to be interested in something other than mobility - namely user data.
What bikeshare startups are doing to unearth this treasure can already be seen in major Chinese cities. Hundreds of thousands of colorful, cheap rental bikes were parked there, which are not tied to fixed rental stations, but are tracked down and unlocked by an app. The rental costs are so low that experts are wondering whether there is really any business to be made with them, and maintenance and disposal are also likely to cost a lot - but the latter is often not done, so that mountains of defective rental bikes pile up in the cityscape. Because on the one hand there are simply too many of them, on the other hand the fact that you can simply park the bike somewhere does not exactly encourage careful handling.
"Masses of cheap bikes are pushed onto the market that are not needed.”
Georg Honkomp, board member of the ZEG
"The system is collapsing. Masses of cheap bikes are pushed onto the market that are not needed. There are mountains of aluminum waste. As a dealer cooperative, we cannot and do not want to support and support this," says Georg Honkomp, Chairman of the Board of ZEG, explaining his company's protest against the UN award. Mobike & Co. seem to be about as socially acceptable and ecological as the controversial ride-sharing service Uber - and you can see it for yourself in Germany too. In Munich, 7.000 "oBike" bikes stood around almost overnight, which can be rented for one euro per half hour - and many of them ended up in the bushes and even in the Isar.
More junk bikes on the streets? No thank you. It is understandable that the ZEG, as a bicycle manufacturer, goes against the grain of the cheap rental competition, and even the demanding user can be critical: Bikes that are easy to have and that nobody really pays attention to will certainly not be helpful for the status of the bicycle . Even a well-meaning award from the UN doesn't help.