
Uber acquires bike-share startup JUMP - coloneltcb
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/09/uber-acquires-bike-share-startup-jump/
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decacorn1
Has Jump been profitable ever?

I cannot possibly see how a dockless bike share company is worth $200M.
Another bloated valuation to add to the trend of overvalued SV companies. I
barely see anyone in SF use any of the bikeshare bikes. Ford, JUMP, any of
them. Once again Uber demonstrates it does not know how to spend money. Well
done.

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cepth
If you’re interested, give this podcast from Recode a listen:
[https://www.recode.net/2017/8/18/16165116/brad-bao-
limebike-...](https://www.recode.net/2017/8/18/16165116/brad-bao-limebike-
bicycle-sharing-recode-too-embarrassed-to-ask-podcast-kara-swisher-lauren-
goode).

According to Brad Bao of Limebike, generally the cost of a bike is covered in
4 months.

In a recent Time magazine piece on bike sharing, the Chinese company Ofo is
listed as being able to produce a bike for $50 USD. Assuming you’re charging
$1 per hour, and even factoring in depreciation and maintenance, I don’t think
it’s hard to see how bikesharing could be financially lucrative.

These bike sharing startups may actually have a business that is capable of
generating an operating profit. The trouble comes when they produce 2x or 3x
the bikes needed in a city, and end up with junkyards full of bikes.

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s17n
Jump bikes are electric assisted drive, they are gonna cost an order of
magnitude more than $50 to build.

~~~
cepth
From the LimeBike podcast interview transcript:

'Right. The unique economics then comes back to the start. There are two
parts. To the bike itself is straight up that all bikes are roughly about $300
at a manufacturer cost. You’re looking at retail price of this equivalent
bike, maybe $900 to $1,000. Manufacturer’s bike, the top bike manufacturer in
the world.'.

They charge $1 for a 30 minute ride. If we believe that they recoup the cost
in 90 days, they're doing $3.33 in revenue per day, or roughly 3.33 half-hour
rides per day. The breakeven on the bike itself would be at 300 rides at $1
each.

A quick Google search shows that well-reviewed e-bikes are commercially
available from $650 and up. JUMP charges $2 per half-hour ride (per their
website). They would need to generate 325 rides to break even. It doesn't seem
that the payback period on the bike itself is meaningfully longer than a
traditional bike.

Keep in mind, this is assuming that JUMP is paying anything close to retail on
e-bikes. Anyone who visits a HKTDC or Canton Fair trade show will have seen
that there are some seriously impressive e-bikes (folding, lightweight,
15MPH), available for a fraction of $650 if you're buying in bulk.

EDIT: Changed $6.66 in revenue per day to $3.33. My mistake.

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eridius
Dammit. I thought JUMP was pretty cool and was planning on slowly shifting my
commute to using it when possible (in order to add a small amount of exercise
to my day). But I swore off Uber years ago and no amount of "but we've
changed!" is going to get me to patronize them again.

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jacquesc
I been trying to open JUMP inside Uber for the past 2 weeks. Every time I
click the "Bike" tab, the app crashes.

Now that it's all the same company, maybe they can figure out how to integrate
it properly?

