Bluegogo
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Bluegogo (Chinese: 小蓝单车, Little Blue Bike) was a station-less bicycle-sharing system based in Tianjin, China, founded in November 2016 by Gang Li and owned by Tianjin Luding Technology. Users unlocked bikes with a mobile app and could leave them anywhere on public roadsides. Launched with more than $90 million in venture funding, the company operated in six Chinese cities and briefly in San Francisco and Sydney, claiming 20 million registered users and deploying over 700,000 bikes at its peak. It went bankrupt in November 2017, and a month later Didi Chuxing partly acquired its assets.
02 / Bluegogo FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Bluegogo collapsed in the brutal price war of China's bike-sharing boom. Companies raced to the bottom with dirt-cheap and even free rides to win users, and Bluegogo burned through its cash; the founder's father publicly admitted the company's incompetence in drawing financing to sustain its capital chain. By November 2017 it could not pay suppliers (owing manufacturers nearly 10 million yuan, about $1.5 million), maintain operations, pay wages, or refund user deposits. Its two attempts at global expansion both failed: San Francisco operations were suspended after four months amid political resistance, and Sydney partner Reddy Go broke off negotiations in favor of another supplier.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Product or service closed
Caixin reports cash-strapped Bluegogo halted its business beginning 20 Nov 2017, with most workers gone, after a late-2017 capital crunch.
- Acquisition
Caixin (3 Jan 2018): sources said Didi signed a late-December agreement to acquire cash-strapped Bluegogo after operations had already halted.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Bluegogo launched in 2016 with more than $90 million in venture funding, including a $58 million round in February 2017.
- 02
By November 2017 the company had burned through its cash with no new investors willing to put in more; it went bankrupt on November 16, 2017, unable to pay suppliers, maintain operations, or refund user deposits on its 830,000 bikes and 20 million registered users.
- 03
In December 2017 Didi Chuxing partly acquired Bluegogo's assets, consistent with the acquisition event already recorded.
- 04
No reliable realized loss figure with clear subject, period and basis has been disclosed; funding raised and unpaid supplier or deposit liabilities are not substitutes for a loss figure.