China’s third-largest bike-sharing start-up, which recently had expanded its reach into San Francisco, has failed in what analysts are calling the first sign of a bursting of the country’s bike-sharing bubble.
“As a CEO, I’ve made mistakes,” wrote Bluegogo chief executive Li Gang in a public letter on Thursday night. “I was filled with arrogance.”
Analysts have described the bike-sharing boom as just the latest in a string of Chinese tech bubbles. Like other fads, it has seen rapid expansion fuelled by venture capital money, winning market share with lossmaking prices followed by a collapse in funding that kills off firms and leaves a monopoly.