Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy • Hacker News Board

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#21

Post by bionsystem » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:46 PM UTC

diogenescynic wrote: post #19

Good riddance, they've made cities worse and more dangerous. Can't tell you how many times some idiot on a Bird scooter going down a sidewalk has almost hit me or my kids. I've also seen several wipeout when going over track tracks.

I'm so glad Paris banned them, it was a mess and very dangerous.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#22

Post by CalChris » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:47 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #14

rchaud wrote: post #8

Not a single word about revenue or profits, just about how much it was 'valued' at. A lot of VC money is just holding up Potemkin villages of 'innovation'.

Perhaps because most would assume that Bird never earned any profit. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BRDS/bird-global/n... https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1861449/000186144922...

On an annual basis, they'd be right. Bird had a single quarter with a sliver of a profit followed then by a massive loss.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#23

Post by ToucanLoucan » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:47 PM UTC

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #13

How do you go bankrupt as a company renting powered scooters, which are possibly the cheapest possible mode of transportation just above a Craigslist bike? Incredible

Honestly alongside everything else (people hated them and their chargers, they got stolen constantly, etc. etc. etc.) the scooters themselves have collapsed in price, you can pick one up at Best Buy now for like $500. And yeah that's a lot but most of the people who were interested in renting them were a little upmarket anyway, so once they became affordable(ish) why would you rent one when you could own one?

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#24

Post by Ekaros » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:49 PM UTC

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #13

How do you go bankrupt as a company renting powered scooters, which are possibly the cheapest possible mode of transportation just above a Craigslist bike? Incredible

Depends entirely on if enough people actually rent them. And do the rents cover cost and the charging and so on...

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#25

Post by zwieback » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:50 PM UTC

How is the scooter rental market in general? In Portland I pretty much just see Lime now and maybe one out ten is being used, others are parked at the top of steep hills.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#26

Post by LeifCarrotson » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:50 PM UTC

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #23

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #13

How do you go bankrupt as a company renting powered scooters, which are possibly the cheapest possible mode of transportation just above a Craigslist bike? Incredible

Honestly alongside everything else (people hated them and their chargers, they got stolen constantly, etc. etc. etc.) the scooters themselves have collapsed in price, you can pick one up at Best Buy now for like $500. And yeah that's a lot but most of the people who were interested in renting them were a little upmarket anyway, so once they became affordable(ish) why would you rent one when you could own one?

What I want to know is where I can (legally) pick up used Bird or Lime or Spin or Ofo or Skip scooters. Are they all going in the trash?

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#27

Post by xeromal » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:52 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #2

> The global shutdown of major cities in the Covid pandemic hit the scooter startup hard, forcing it to pull all of its scooters from US and European markets Why did something like COVID effect the use and "contactless" rental of scooters? Was this just collateral damage or did specific changes on laws/regulations cause the pull out?

We weren't allowed to go the beach here in SoCal. If you can't go outside, why would you need a scooter

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#28

Post by b112 » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:52 PM UTC

CalChris wrote: post #22

lotsofpulp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps because most would assume that Bird never earned any profit. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BRDS/bird-global/n... https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1861449/000186144922...

On an annual basis, they'd be right. Bird had a single quarter with a sliver of a profit followed then by a massive loss.

I wonder if that was just before a big VC round.

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#29

Post by Syonyk » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:52 PM UTC

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #13

How do you go bankrupt as a company renting powered scooters, which are possibly the cheapest possible mode of transportation just above a Craigslist bike? Incredible

You get high on your venture capital supply and then remain so disconnected from reality that you don't worry about profits, costs, use, repair, charging, or just about anything else, figuring you can "gig economy worker" your way out of it. Lose money on every transaction, but plan to make it up in volume once you take over the entire market for it. And then realize, rather late, that there are other people in the space, it's not a hard space to get into, and nobody actually really likes you in the first place for your model of "dump semi-loads of scooters first, ask permission never."

Re: Bird, once valued at $2.5B, just filed for bankruptcy

#30

Post by dgreensp » Wed, Dec 20, 2023, 7:53 PM UTC

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #13

How do you go bankrupt as a company renting powered scooters, which are possibly the cheapest possible mode of transportation just above a Craigslist bike? Incredible

If we’re going to spend half a billion dollars for a company to hire a few hundred people and then fail, I wish it was for a better cause.