A:Every country has its own sets of laws and regulations. For example, the UK government requires that there has to be front lights on shared bikes, so we have to make sure our bikes can generate electricity.

Q: Where are these shared bikes launched overseas manufactured?

A:For sure, it’s more feasible and convenient to manufacture bikes at home and then ship them overseas. In fact, many of our copycats overseas in the Silicon Valley also purchase bikes from China.

On technology and commercialization: smart locks are key to Mobike's development

Q: What’s the difference between Mobike and other platform in terms of technology?

A:Pony Ma’s comparison is quite appropriate (Note: the other days, Pony Ma and Zhu Xiaohu had a debate over Mobike and ofo’s development path, during which Pony compared ofo’s shared bikes to PHS phones and dead terminals. Click hereto read for more details). The biggest difference between Mobike and other bike-sharing platforms is: our bikes are monitored real time online, and people’s demands for shared bikes are also matched online. Other platforms, however, can only check users, not their bikes

To some degree, its like we have different broadband widths. Likewise, while users can only make phone calls with PHS phones, they can do a lot more things with an iPhone.

Pony Ma, founder and CEO of Tencent, compared ofo’s bikes to “dead terminals”.

Q: Will Tencent exchange ideas with you over technology and product?

A:Pony stood for us because we shared the same value: the power of product and technology. It is exactly Tencent’s persistence for product and technology that facilitates the maturity of China’s internet industry.

Q: What’s Mobike’s timetable for commercialization?

A:On the condition that we can become profitable right away. However, profitability is not our ultimate goal right now. Facebook also thought about commercialization after its MAU reached over 20,000 users, but Mark Zuckerberg decided that it was simply not cool to have a Pepsi’s ad on Facebook’s homepage.

As a matter of fact, we’ve been exploring the potential of different kinds of revenue model. Thanks to our smart locks, we can accurately check transaction information every time users pay bills.

(Note: According to Mobike, it could be extremely hard or inaccurate to measure usage fee for platforms that adopt mechanical locks or code locks. With smart locks, however, Mobike can avoid such bugs and inconvenience.)

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[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @Su Jianxunplease note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.