Going back to the past, it was always a pleasant sight to see individuals walking or cycling for short trips across the city. Bike-sharing apps can help you retrace your steps down memory lane.
Yes, with the blaring horns of thousands of cars, the time is changing dramatically. Admittedly, history often repeats itself. Likewise, it is acceptable to claim that the good old days are back. So, after appreciating taxes and car-sharing, now hail mobile bike sharing apps.
This newly introduced service immediately caught the attention of the crowd, who were mesmerized by the ease and accessibility it provided. People are thrilled with this new mode of transportation, which allows them to rent bikes quickly.
This trend of cycling to work and other short city trips is spreading across the country, from small villages to metropolitan cities. undoubtedly, the bike rental business has seen significant growth in the past several years.
As you can see, riding as a means of inner-city transportation is becoming increasingly popular, so we'll be seeing more of these bike stocks with many environmental benefits in the near future. If you are going to launch a bike-sharing app for your firm, then reading about these bike sharing systems will also help you to grow your bike sharing business. So, let's talk about some of the best bike-sharing applications and know more about them.
The Well known Bike Sharing Apps
1. Ofo
The company was named "ofo" because of the world's resemblance to a cyclist on a bicycle. It was founded in 2014 by five members of Perking University.
Ofo is built on a cutting-edge business concept that combines the sharing economy with smart gadgets. Ofo is the first bicycle service exchange to implement a non-docking bicycle rental system.
With over 5 million registered users, Ofo is now one of the most popular bike sharing apps in the market. The company has 50 million trips and more than 300,000 bicycles in 24 Chinese cities.
2. Mobike
Mobike is a small bike sharing firm established in Beijing. The company offers short-term rental bike rentals that can be picked up and stored at any authorized location.
The company manages over 8 million bicycles for its 200 million registered members. Mobike is a bike-sharing business with an estimated 8,650,000 Mobike DAUs that operates in 18 countries (day active users).
3. LimeBike
San Francisco-based mobility firm Lime made headlines for controversy over its e-scooters on both sides of the Atlantic, but its electric-assist bike is still going strong in the UK. Green and yellow bikes have now arrived in London, following their first introduction in Milton Keynes, in the municipalities of Brent and Ealing. Riders can use the Lime-e app to find the nearest Lime-e and then scan the QR code to unlock the bike.
The prices are really attractive, especially considering that these are electric assist bikes rather than pure human-powered bicycles. Riding a Lime electric-assist bike costs £1 to unlock and 15p each minute. Although there are not many of them now, early indicators of Lyme in the UK are good.
4. JumpBikes
There are conventional and electric bikes available from JUMP Bikes, which can be unlocked through an app. In 40 cities, the platform offers 15,000 non-electric bicycles, while its pedal assists electric bikes are now available in eight US cities.
JUMP bikes can now be rented directly through the Uber app, bridging the gap between the transportation giant's first and last mile. JumpBikes has tackled a number of problems by inventing dock-based units that do not leave abandoned bicycles littering city streets but have limited access.
5. Byke
Berlin-based bike sharing startup Wind Mobility operates without a fixed location. Bikes are available to rent and can be parked anywhere in the business district. This is particularly easy to function due to the "Internet of Things" (IoT), which eliminates the need for keys, cash, ID, or deposits.
Prices start at one euro for 20 minutes. However, bikes are much less common in Germany than Nextbikes or Call bikes. In addition, Stiftung Warentest criticized the bike's safety - and the fact that the terms and conditions still state: "You must verify the vehicle for obvious defects before starting your ride."
Essential Features of Bike Sharing App
Competition is fierce due to the current popularity of bike sharing mobile apps. However, with some exceptional features, you can easily attract a large number of users to your app. Read on to learn about some of the features that can help you make your app more user-friendly:
● Provide Supportive Customer Service
This is an important function for a bike-sharing app. This feature allows app users to directly contact the service provider in case of any problem in renting a bike through the app.
This works nicely with the chat feature of the mobile app as it allows riders to get in touch with someone instantly and get their problem fixed. This is a mandatory feature in bike sharing mobile apps.
● Provide 'Book-in-Advance' facility
Make sure your users can reserve bikes in advance. As a result, there is no need to wait. Customers who book in advance can rest assured that they will not be late for their appointment.
Hence, it's a critical feature for places where the bikes are frequently booked early in the morning or late at night. Users will be more inclined to book with you again if they find this convenient.
● Provide Trip-Details
It allows users to view information about the rides performed by them on the bike. Yes, this feature gives customers a complete overview of their journey, allowing them to see where they started and where they are heading. As a result, users can keep track of their entire journey in this way.
● Option for Multiple Payments
It's important for bike sharing apps to include a function that allows users to pay for them after completing their rides. Keep this function basic and quick for users to use, as it allows drivers to pay with just a few taps on their phone's screen.
At the same time, ensure that user data is secure. The data debit/credit agreement, as well as any discount or promotion code, should be automatically applied to the total cost. It's no surprise that the city/country where they're working on a mobile app has a simple payment option for customers in order to create a more user-friendly experience.
● Bike Lock Using Bike Number
Once all the elements of the bike have been put together, it's time to lock it up and park it somewhere safe. The bike number will be required to manually lock the bike at the end of the journey.
Hence, the bike is quite easy to ride, and users do not face any difficulty in parking or locking it.
● QR-code to Unlock Bike
This feature allows users to unlock bikes by scanning a QR code. As a result, the user is ready to ride the bike in a matter of seconds.
The user has to first touch the "Unlock" button on the mobile application, then scan the QR code to unlock the bike. Keep this feature simple so that consumers have no trouble unlocking the bike and can hop on to quickly locate nearby places, such as traveling to a mall or movie theater, or even going home or office.
How much does it cost to develop a bike rental mobile app?
A bike rental mobile app can cost somewhere from $12K and $25K to develop on a single (Android/iOS) platform. This pricing varies substantially due to the inclusion of different features. The price of producing an app for many platforms will rise. It is true that basic mobile apps will be much less expensive than those with advanced features.
Operating system
The cost of developing a mobile app for iOS is much higher than for Android. As a result, if you choose to design an Android app, the development cost will be lower.
Resources
For the development of bike rental apps, dedicated resources should be hired. Choosing the right team, along with individuals who can contribute successfully, is critical to the success of bike rental app development. Project Manager, 2-3 iOS/Android developers, 1-2 Backend developers, UI & UX designer, and QA tester are the essential team members.
The cost of developing a basic app with only the required features is estimated to be between $12k and $15k. However, if sophisticated features are added, more team members will be required, increasing the development cost to $25,000.
The Marketing Strategy
Bike rental services are relatively new in today's world, so a strong marketing plan is needed. The company's unique selling proposition is a dockless scooter that can be rented from anywhere and returned at the same place. This is quite useful for people, especially millennials, who are constantly on the go, looking for less expensive forms of transportation, and who are always in a hurry and have companions.
Nowadays people don't have to wait for app-based taxis to arrive, thanks to the expansion of the bike rental business. They can easily unlock the bike and move around the city with their friends using the application. Unlike app-based cabs, where consumers have no choice of co-travellers, the entire fee can be shared among friends, and they can choose exactly who to travel with.
Undoubtedly, rental bicycles have heralded a big change. These bikes are often used in urban areas and are expanding to smaller towns as well. The convenience and low cost of transportation itself serves as a marketing strategy for app-based bike rental services, allowing them to grow.
Truly, a complete bike rental mobile app development solution that helps you get started with your bike rental business quickly and ensures a user-friendly, feature-rich software that attracts a large consumer base and your business jumpstarts.
Final Words
So, are you ready to start your own bike-sharing company like Ofo or Mobike? Bike sharing programs have fueled global economic growth, with more than 1,000 companies already participating in the sector. However, the biggest drivers of this growth are the huge number of users in the Chinese market and the growth potential of the global markets. If you're looking to set up your own bike sharing app and change the world with this environmentally beneficial alternative, it's time to launch it and share it with Ofo, Mobike, LimeBike, JumpBike, and Metro.
Cypherox Technologies can assist you in developing a successful bike sharing application, similar to Ofo and Mobike, with an exclusive range of features such as maps to find nearby bikes, payment gateway integration, GPS tracking to track trip details, cross-platform ability, QR code integration, and multilingual support, as a leading iOS and Android app development company.
Are you still puzzled and have a question about the cost of e-scooter app development? Don't worry, you can contact us through our contact form. We can help you with your business strategy as we have developed several custom mobile apps for small and medium businesses.
