Ofo's bike-sharing licence suspended over failure to meet regulations

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has suspended the operating licence of Chinese bicycle-sharing firm ofo with effect from yesterday after it failed to comply with regulatory requirements.

The beleaguered company had been granted a licence to operate a fleet of 25,000 shared bicycles in October last year, but it later requested that this be cut down to 10,000.

LTA issued an ultimatum to ofo on Jan 15, saying the company had breached multiple critical requirements, including having too many deployed bikes and failing to properly implement the Quick Response-code parking system, which had taken effect the day before, on Jan 14.

The LTA's deadline was Feb 13, which ofo missed.

It will now be required to remove all its bicycles from public places by March 13 or face licence cancellation.

An LTA spokesman said the authority will lift the suspension only if ofo meets all regulatory requirements.

She added: "LTA will continue to monitor ofo's efforts to comply and may cancel ofo's licence if ofo does not show satisfactory progress."

This leaves Chinese firm Mobike and home-grown SG Bike as the two companies that hold full operator's licences. Mobike has also applied to expand its fleet size in the latest round of licence applications, which closed on Monday.

Last year, The Straits Times reported that ofo users' refund requests had gone unanswered, and that staff from ofo had not been seen for many weeks at the company's registered address.

Online publication Today reported last month that the company had laid off its operations team here.

Backed by Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group, ofo has been battling cash flow problems, with vendors and users both calling for the company to pay off the debt.

ofo is the latest major bike-sharing company to face problems with the regulations in Singapore.

In September last year, oBike went into liquidation, with 58,000 bicycles removed from public spaces.

The bike-sharing company announced last June that it was shutting operations in Singapore, citing difficulties in meeting the new requirements put in place by LTA.

This article was first published in The New Paper. Permission required for reproduction.