Coolqi steps up game in bike-sharing market with new model

A young man rents Coolqi's shared bikes in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, June 8, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

Coolqi, a bike-sharing company based in Beijing, unveiled a new shared bicycle model as the company ramps up efforts to compete with rivals such as ofo and Mobike.

The golden bike can automatically adjust its seat to riders' height once users save their height data into the bike-sharing app.

The company also cooperated with Haier Wireless, a subsidiary of Haier, China's major household appliance company, to add wireless charging to the bike, said Gao Weiwei, founder and CEO of Coolqi.

"Chinese consumers spend most of their leisure time on smartphones, whose battery life is always in danger. Wireless charging on the bicycle can help them always get connected to the internet," Gao said.

To differentiate from competitors, Coolqi also developed an intelligent voice locker and can broadcast the weather forecast and other useful information.

The bike-sharing industry is currently booming. The market scale of bike-sharing hit 49 million in 2016, almost double that of 2015, according to a Sootoo Research Institute report.

However the company faced problems like safety of deposit and bikes needing repairs. As for the deposit issue, Coolqi is joining hands with China Minsheng Bank in deposit supervision and management as well as credit extension to guarantee user rights.

In about six months, the company has deployed 1 million bikes in over 50 cities across China. It plans to enter 10 foreign countries including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Israel and Dubai.