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Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

theatlantic.com

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Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#191

Post by HillaryBriss »

empath75 wrote: post #157
ccozan wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this very interesting point of view, a company as a product. If you look this way, then a lot of stuff makes sense in the VC/Start-Up world.

It only makes sense if we’re in a bubble.

i guess so. but what causes these persistently bubbly conditions?

the top 1-2% have very large cash hoards they absolutely must invest. and they can't just go around opening laundromats, liquor stores and flipping houses. that's chicken feed. it requires too much attention. too much work.

there are challenges investing in the really big global growth stories (e.g. China): state ownership has the upper hand. they can be forced into a loss position by the state.

yet, vanishingly few are smart enough to predict the rise of Facebook or Google. so what can they do? take shots in the dark in the US tech economy until they hit something large.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#192

Post by jonknee »

lordnacho wrote: post #17

I want to hear more about Bird's business model. How can it be worthwhile for them to give hundreds of dollars out to have the scooters charged? What do people pay for using the scooters? As per the article, it also seems incentives are not quite thought out yet, so people can grab the $20 "hard-to-find" fee reasonably easily. It sounds like you can have a friend stash them until the fee goes up, then go and collect…

The alternative to is hire staff and vehicles to go on scavenger hunts around the city, also an expensive thing to do (I see Lime Bike vans around Seattle, can't be cheap). The scooters that need charging are ones that have had paid rides, so the economics should be workable at some equilibrium.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#193

Post by jonknee »

joosters wrote: post #38

Bird talk about making transportation more environmentally friendly, yet it turns out people are driving the scooters to and from their locations every day... it wouldn't be surprising if the scooters are traveling more miles in the back of a gas powered vehicle than they do each day in actual rides.

The article also notes lots of scooters in the car at the same time, which pretty much negates this issue.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#194

Post by HillaryBriss »

kaptain wrote: post #61

Reminds me of bike sharing in China. Now THAT is out of control. In China, the companies pay committed employees or contractors to gather bikes, as opposed to crowd-sourcing it. There's pros//cons to that (as per the article itself). At least in China, people don't respect the bikes. They trash them. They leave them everywhere. It sounds like a similar attitude exists with these Bird scooters. As societies/cities gro…

so, did Bird (and other scooter companies) simply copy their business model from existing business models which had already been pioneered in China?

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#196

Post by fokinsean »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #142

Do the economics stack up? """Bird pays Brandon, a contract worker, up to several hundred dollars a night. On one particularly successful night, Brandon brought home $600.""" The article does not have many specifics but roughly Brandon seems to get 10 or so scooters on each trip, two trips a night(?). so that's something between 10 bucks and 30 bucks per charged scooter cost to Bird. Even if it's just 10 bucks that b…

It definitely doesn't stack up, they're just burning VC money it doesn't matter to them.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#197

Post by zootam »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #142

Do the economics stack up? """Bird pays Brandon, a contract worker, up to several hundred dollars a night. On one particularly successful night, Brandon brought home $600.""" The article does not have many specifics but roughly Brandon seems to get 10 or so scooters on each trip, two trips a night(?). so that's something between 10 bucks and 30 bucks per charged scooter cost to Bird. Even if it's just 10 bucks that b…

Lot of decent discussion and more info here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/8l12oj/electric....

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#199

Post by billfruit »

dalbasal wrote: post #143
apexalpha wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I could not imagine buttoned down European city like Vienna or even a messy one like Amsterdam allowing it) I don't really see benefit over a bike. Except that bikes don't require charging.

I guess I phrased that badly. My point is about scooter sharing as an alternative/augmentation of bike sharing. No comment on personally owned scooters or bikes. Beijing (one example) has bike sharing without stations . Just dump the bike wherever and the bike sharing guys will deal with it. This is an interesting data point, because it removes the infrastructure bottleneck entirely (but makes a mess). What we learn…

If I am remembering correctly these dockless bike sharing companies are in the process of expanding to USnl; as per reports Mobike has started service in 5 us cities.

Re: Charging electric scooters is a cut-throat business

#200

Post by rconti »

blaisio wrote: post #95

I love these scooters! It's such a fun way to get around. There's a charger in my building, so they always leave scooters right outside for me, ready to go when I need them. It's really an amazing experience. For a new user, it takes less than a minute to get started. The first time, as an engineer, I just was shocked that it was actually working so well! I feel like it unlocks a whole new way to see the city for a l…

Pretty cool. I was tempted to take a few and race them around our office as we've got a lot of open space. Had to ask a friend about how it works; he contacted the company and unfortunately he wouldn't be ALLOWED to take it home after work, charge it at home, then return it somewhere the next AM. Yup, it's more acceptable to their T&C to leave it on the sidewalk in front of his suburban house than to actually charge and return it to a train station where it'll get used.
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