On Monday, Uber announced their acquisition of the bright-red bike-rental startup JUMP, owners of the 500+ electric, dockless bicycles scattered through the streets of San Francisco and Washington D.C.
They're incredibly popular: users are taking between 6 and 7 rides a day.
The premise is simple: instead of owning your own bike, you can find and rent a JUMP bike directly in their app – each one has a built-in GPS. Bikes are scattered across the city, locked to racks, poles, or even trees.
When you're done riding, park up the bike with the built-in metal bar – another JUMP user will come by and take it soon enough.
This might seem like the next parody-worthy "Silicon Valley innovation," but race to own the bike-sharing world is very real. The competition already took off years ago in China.
The History of Dockless Bikes in China 
Though bike sharing has existed in various forms in Europe since the 1960s, it only recently took off in China.First came the docked bikes, parked and rented at automated hubs around the city. By 2013, China had a combined fleet of 650,000 public bicycles for rent. Of the world's 15 largest public bicycle fleets, 13 are located in China.
Then came the dockless bicycles (like JUMP)... which exploded. Over 70 startups deployed a combined 16 million dockless bicycles in China. Industry-leader Ofo has raised over $2.2 billion.
They're incredibly popular, but...
Problems quickly arose. Vandalism. Broken bikes. Hundreds of unattended bikes piling up on sidewalks and in front of metro stations.
City-run Bicycle Graveyards have cropped up for any seized bikes.
Bike companies and governments are working on a solution. Shanghai (which houses 1M+ bikes) drafted one of China's first city-level bike-sharing regulations. The two largest operators, Mobike and Ofo, have made efforts to reallocate bikes more efficiently.
What's Launched in the US So Far 
Seven big players have entered the US market so far, each with a slightly different model for their vision of shared transportation:Motivate International: The original bike startup, with branded fleets from Ford and Citi in New York City, San Francisco, Portland, Washington D.C., Columbus, Chicago, and Boston.
Marketing, engineering, and data analyst roles open right now.
JUMP Bikes: Shared dockless "pedal assist" bikes, rentable for $4/hr. Each bike contains a small motor that gives you a speed boost.
Launched in SF and Washington D.C. with pilot fleets. They're easy to spot – each bike is bright red – and are capped at 19MPH.
Their recent acquisition was good for the team: they're hiring like crazy.
LimeBike: Dockless bikes and scooters, launched in 20+ cities.
They recently launched electric scooters in San Francisco. The dockless rides are relatively expensive – $1 + 15 cents/min – but are quick and plentiful. They're also hiring in SF and New York.
Bird Rides: Electric scooters of the future, rentable for $1 + 15 cents/min. They've launched with hundreds of Birds in LA and SF.
Scoot Networks: Rentable motorscooters, bikes, and cars directly from your smartphone. Rides start at $4.
These feel more like motorcycles than electric bikes, and come with a full-head helmet with every rental. Live in San Francisco, and they're hiring.
Spin: Station-less scooters launched in 50+ markets. They've raised $8M and launched their own SF fleet to compete with LimeBike and Bird.
They're hiring for literally every position: sales, design, engineering, writers, business development spread between SF and Washington D.C.
All of these choices overwhelming? We've tested every SF-based bike, scooter, and car and have the lowdown on all of them
Tags:JUMP
