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Electric scooter company Bird files for bankruptcy (techcrunch.com)

submitted 11 months ago by Xepher@lemm.ee to c/technology

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[–] Seathru 40 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I can't believe people were buying into their "franchise". They approached me in 2020 when they were trying to expand into the town I live and I had a downtown warehouse to operate out of. After they got done explaining everything, I laughed until they hung up.

You had to buy the scooters from them at around $600 each, you were responsible for all the recovery/batteries/maintenance/damage/theft caused by customers, warranty was non-existent ("call our chinese supplier and they will totally hook you up"), and after that they took 20% off the top. Some quick math put it at over 6 months before each scooter became profitable IF nothing happened to it in that time. Someone throws it in the canal just to be a dick? Sucks to be you, you're out $600 + whatever else you've put into it every time it happens.

Really came off to me that they were making their money selling to suckers who thought they were going to be entrepreneurs.

Edit: They did apparently did get someone here into it because I saw them around for a few months before disappearing completely.

[–] Silverhand 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Good fucking riddance. I hate these things, people leave them just lying across the sidewalk all the time.

[–] luna@lemmy.catgirl.biz 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Sounds like a people problem

[–] TheKrevFox@pawb.social 14 points 11 months ago

If people are being a problem, then it's a design problem.

[–] explodicle@local106.com 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The business model failed to deal with people leaving scooters in the way. It was a problem in every city.

[–] luna@lemmy.catgirl.biz 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't know if I'm weird but I've always been careful to park scooters in a way that doesn't hinder others. Also never thrown a scooter in a river or kicked them over and i don't get people who have the desire to do something like that. Not trying to pat my own back by saying this but it seems to me that it is possible to have micro-rental scooter services and treat it in a way that doesn't make it a nuisance or danger to others. Don't take my scooters away just because some people don't know how to behave. Like i don't imagine banning cars universally (though reducing them and promoting foot traffic would be nice) because some people are bad drivers, instead they get policed and fined/thrown in jail. I'm probably thinking way too naive about it but i like using scooters to go short distances.

[–] explodicle@local106.com 6 points 11 months ago

IMHO it's a "negative externality" issue. Each individual saves precious seconds by leaving the scooter in the middle of the sidewalk. So a good way to internalize the cost might be to impound scooters left in the way, at the company's expense (like cars). Then the company can go through their data to determine if it was the last user's fault, or just some random jerk.

It's ultimately the company's problem, not the sidewalk-using public's problem, especially wheelchair users who can't move the scooters themselves.

(FWIW I used to charge these things as a side hustle and don't want them taken away either.)

[–] derbis 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I sort of agree. These things appeared overnight in a bunch of cities. It's not surprising to me that we didn't and don't have cultural best practices around them.

There are always going to be inconsiderate people, like those who don't pick up after their dogs or don't follow traffic laws. We don't respond by getting rid of dogs and cars.

Bird, Lime, and others should have invested in acclimating the culture to the presence of the scooters, helping ensure people weren't going to react like the top level poster ("I hate these things, get rid of em.")

I personally used them when they were first out and I happened to be visiting LA. They were useful, convenient, fun, and affordable. And most of all, low-impact compared to the alternative.

It's a loss to not have something like them as a transportation option. But considering the carelessness of the approach, I suppose it wasn't long for this world. Typical silicon valley pirate stuff; "disrupt" the culture on VC dime, try to push expenses onto someone else, and try to cash out ASAP. I like them; just wish they had been done better.

[–] pbjamm 9 points 11 months ago

Which is only a mild annoyance unless you are in a wheel chair. Then it is a serious one and possibly dangerous if you have to navigate into the street to bypass them.

[–] yads@lemmy.ca 11 points 11 months ago (17 children)

The scooters are really popular in our city. Currently we have 2 companies operating: Bird and Neuron. The positives have definitely outweighed the negatives. Hope they can keep going.

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[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 11 months ago

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

Click here to see the summary

In a press release today, Bird confirmed that it had entered into a “financial restructuring process aimed at strengthening its balance sheet,” with the company continuing to operate as normal in pursuit of “long-term, sustainable growth.”

Founded in 2017 by former Lyft and Uber executive Travis VanderZanden, Bird is one of numerous startups to introduce dockless micromobility platforms around the world, allowing city-dwellers to pay for short-term access to electric scooters or bikes.

Things didn’t improve, and with its share price continuing to plummet, CEO VanderZanden departed in June with the company eventually delisted from the NYSE in September.

“This announcement represents a significant milestone in Bird’s transformation, which began with the appointment of new leadership early this year,” Washinushi said.

We remain focused on our mission to make cities more liveable by using micromobility to reduce car usage, traffic, and carbon emissions.”

This latest news comes just a day after competitor Micromobility.com was delisted from the Nasdaq over its failing stock price, three years after it too went public via a SPAC merger.

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