Exactly one year ago this week, a flood began in Cambridge. They came as a trickle at first, with only twenty of them peppered throughout the city – the first of their kind in all of Europe. Today, only one year later, what was once a trickle is now a tsunami. A tsunami of bright yellow bikes that has swept the streets of Cambridge and the world.

They are owned by Ofo, a Chinese company locked in a battle for two-wheeled world domination, and they are revolutionary. Ofo is the world’s first and largest dockless bike-share company. Users download the Ofo app, use it to find a bike, scan the QR code on the bike to unlock it, pay 50p per half hour, and simply leave the bike whenever and wherever they finish using it.

Since Ofo pioneered the dockless bike-share business model, it has become increasingly popular – dozens of competing companies have entered the market. To mark one year since the frenzy first reached Europe via Cambridge, this is the astonishing story of how dockless bike-share grew from a trickle into a flood.

Riding into Cambridge

In April, 2017, Ofo was looking to expand. It had spread like wildfire in China, becoming a multi-billion-dollar company. When it decided to move overseas, it chose Cambridge as the site of its first foray outside Asia.

When asked why the company chose Cambridge as its launchpad into Europe, an Ofo representative told Varsity that “Cambridge is synonymous with cycling so it made perfect sense for us to run our pilot scheme here.”

The pilot scheme started out small, “with just 20 bikes as a small scale trial.” But “the service has expanded rapidly,” the representative told Varsity. “We now have a fleet of 550 bikes” in Cambridge, he said, not to mention the company’s 6,550 bikes spread across four cities in the UK.

“We’ve been thrilled by the way that the city has adopted ofo and taken to using it in such great numbers,” the Ofo representative said. While the numbers in Cambridge have indeed been impressive, they pale in comparison to the company’s incredible explosion across the world.

The bike-share boom

At the dawn of 2017, Ofo operated in only one country: China. When it launched its pilot scheme in Cambridge on 20th April 2017, the UK became the third country in the world to host the company’s signature bright yellow bikes.

Now, there are 10 million bright yellow bikes in 21 countries. The company has expanded from 80 cities a year ago to over 250 in recent months. And it isn’t alone. The UK quickly became the first front in a bitter competition between Ofo and its rivals, the most prominent of which, Mobike, has expanded at a similarly blistering pace.

Mobike launched in Manchester on 29 June, marking its 100th city launch and its entrance into Europe. Just under five months later, on 22 November, it launched in Berlin, its 200th city. It launched in 100 cities in 146 days – a new city every 35 hours. Mobike now operates in 15 countries, having launched most recently in Chile and Mexico.

Despite the phenomenal growth of dockless bike-share companies, some have collapsed just as dramatically. GoBee, from Hong Kong, withdrew from Europe entirely: a blog post on its website said that, “In 4 months, 60% of our fleet was destroyed, stolen or privatised, making the whole European project no longer sustainable.” Bluegogo, which was China’s third-largest dockless bike-share company after Ofo and Mobike, declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. The dockless bike-share war had claimed its first casualties.

Cambridge’s wheel ordeal

The conditions on the ground in Cambridge mean that the worst effects of the bike-share war have been avoided, but difficulties remain. The dockless business model’s darker side has been unavoidable here: freeing the bikes from docks also frees riders to steal, damage, or dump the bikes.

When asked if their bikes have been vandalised, the head of Ofo UK told The Guardian that “We had one thrown off a bridge in Cambridge.” Cambridge News found that 15 abandoned bikes were handed over to the police in a six week period in November, and last week it reported last week that “a Cambridge man was left exhausted and irate after the incessant alarm from an Ofo bike kept him awake all night.”

In general, however, Ofo told Varsity that “Vandalism hasn’t been a large problem for us. The vast majority of people in Cambridge have been using our bikes as intended, responsibly, and treated them with respect.”

And when problems do arise, Ofo has a team to come to the rescue: “On the rare occasions that our bikes do get damaged our marshals collect them and get them repaired and back on the road in a matter of hours.” Besides collecting and repairing bikes, marshals ensure that the bikes are parked properly and redistribute them to locations where demand is high.

The Cambridge advantage

As Ofo, Mobike, and their competitors scramble to take over the world, the future of dockless bike-share remains unclear. Neither Ofo nor Mobike is profitable, and the war between the two companies is extremely costly. But if the yellow bikes zipping down the streets of Cambridge are any indication, the turbulence of the global dockless bike-share market has found an island of calm here.

Despite Ofo’s difficulties, the company seems to have chosen wisely when it decided to launch here one year ago. The city’s cycling culture and small size, not to mention Ofo’s marshals, have allowed for a degree of success.

To Ofo and Mobike, the year since dockless bike-share came to Cambridge has looked like a fight to the death as they struggle to take over the world as fast as possible. To Cambridge, the city synonymous with cycling, it simply looked like a year in which cycling has become even easier than it was before.

Using Ofo in Cambridge

Given the common issues inherent in the dockless bike-share business model, what is it like to actually use Ofo in Cambridge? To find out, Varsity spoke to a number of students about their experience using the service.

Sara Borasio, who studies HSPS at Girton, said that she started using Ofo after her own bike was stolen. Since then, she has continued using it. “Most of the time I can use my own bike, but if it’s being repaired or I’m already in town for some reason, Ofo is very useful.” And although she has had some issues with the condition of the bikes, she said that “I’m still glad it exists, and I’m especially glad Girton is still included in the geofenced area.”

Like Sara, Georgia Crapper uses Ofo despite owning her own bike. She said that she uses it once or twice per week, and that “it’s most useful when I’m making a one-way journey, for example to meet a friend for dinner, when I know we’ll take a taxi home together.” She said that though the bikes are quite heavy and are more difficult to ride than her own, her overall experience using Ofo has been very positive. “It’s quick and better for the environment than taking an Uber, not to mention cheaper! I’ve never spent more than 50p for a journey. The bikes are easy to find, if you’re in the centre of town, and are usually no more than a 5 minute walk away if you’re a bit further out.”

Ben Grodzinski, a student at Christ’s, told Varsity that he first started using Ofo when he visited China. “In Cambridge, I’ve only ever used it once, when my own bike was in the shop for repairs. If I didn’t have my own bike, I’d use it very regularly. In China, where I didn’t have my own bike, I probably used it twice a day on average.”

Considering that Cambridge is such a bike-obsessed city, Ofo seems to have chosen wisely when it decided to launch its European expansion here.