China's Mobike has 100m users

QINGDAO - Chinese bicycle-sharing giant Mobike said Monday that it had 100 million users worldwide.

Mobike started its business in Shanghai in April last year, before expanding into major Chinese cities and branching out abroad. Users access a Mobike account and unlock the bicycles by scanning a QR code on the bicycles.

It has over 5 million bicycles in 100 cities worldwide, according to Xia Yiping, co-founder of the company at a forum in the coastal city of Qingdao.

Average daily orders top 25 million, he said.

"We are trying to expand our business in the European and Asian markets," Xia said.

Since April last year, Mobike users have logged 2.5 billion kilometers, equivalent to cutting the emissions of 170,000 cars for a whole year, Xia said.

Mobike's chief competitor is Ofo.

According to the China E-Commerce Research Center, there were 18.9 million users of shared bicycles nationwide at the end of 2016. The number is expected to hit 50 million by the end of 2017.