Mobike eyeing Latin American expansion

Chinese dock-less bicycle-sharing company Mobike is eyeing the rest of Latin America after launching the service in Chile and Mexico this month.

"We're looking at a lot of Latin American countries. What is most important is that we never launch in any country or city without permission from the government," Mobike's Chile country manager Leonardo Estrada told BNamericas on the sidelines of the Singularity University Summit in Santiago.

The service was launched in the Santiago municipalities of La Reina and Las Condes on March 4, a week after being launched in Mexico City.

There are currently some 1,097 Mobike bicycles circulating in Santiago and the company is looking at introducing new models of bikes – electric powered, with more gears and lighter.

"We will grow in accordance with demand," Estrada said.

Mobike has more than 200mn users worldwide, 8mn bikes in use in 16 countries and operates in 250 cities.

Currently with the service in a free trial period, users unlock the bike by scanning a bar code into the app on their mobile phones. From March 17, the service will cost 390 pesos (US$0.65) per half hour of use, using a credit card. Bikes can be left anywhere and are picked up and taken back to one of 185 central deposits in La Reina and Las Condes.

The bikes are orange and silver colored, do not have a chain, and come with a five-spoke wheel with solid puncture-proof tires. The security mechanism that locks the back wheel is opened via a smartphone. The bikes can be located via GPS.