Imagine those good old days, when it was always very pleasing to watch people ride a bike in various corners of the city. However, with the passage of time- honks of myriad cars and vehicles emitting polluting gases replaced it altogether. But, the world is now going back to its golden time. After car sharing, taxi-hailing now is the time for bike-sharing apps.

This innovative eco-service has gained massive attention from the crowd due to its ease and affordability. People love this convenient means of transportation for their short trips because they are from a small town or a metropolitan city.

About Mobike

Mobike is one of the popular innovations in the bike-sharing business. A person can easily pick up and drop the bike after making their trip. The app fulfills short trips anytime, and all a user has to do is to drop the vehicle at some legal parking destination. Mobike offers an affordable means of shared transportation for reducing congestion and carbon footprint. Overall, the app is designed to improve the quality of lifestyle.

This article is for those startup owners and entrepreneurs who are either running a bike-sharing business and want to develop an app or who want to start the campaign from the scratch. In this read, we have covered all the nooks and corners of an app like Mobike for taking your business to heights.

Why are Bike Sharing Apps so Popular?

Several factors contribute to the popularity of these bike-sharing applications, such as-

1. Easy Usability: A bike-sharing app is an easy-to-use service. A customer just has to park the bike at the spot where his ride ends.

2. Price Compatible: The bike-sharing app is cost-effective. It only charges a reasonable amount for the trip a user made.

3. Powerful Network:A bike-sharing service network is usually well-connected and extensive, which leads to a boosted user-management.

4. Local Authorities Support: No solution is successful without the support of people. In a bike-sharing app case, the local authorities who are part of government agencies, public land, and public funds come quite handy.

5. Premium Bikes:The bikes which are rented using these apps require very low maintenance and are fit for meeting user demands.

Who all are the Potential Customers?

With the rising popularity of a bike-sharing application, a new opportunity has come across entrepreneurs. People no longer think of it as an app for renting bikes, but a way of achieving their fitness goals. The following kind of customer might consider renting your bikes:

• Delivery agents for covering short distances
• School going children
• Athletes for meeting their targets 
• Employees for going to the office
• A common man may use it as a leisure sport. 

These days, bikes are availed by people of all ages and for different purposes. Also, as the world is heading towards green innovations, a bike renting application with an interactive design, cool feature-set, and proper marketing shall result in a vast audience.

Did you Check out the Competitors?

Before developing anything in the world, it’s highly recommended to check out the competition as it would provide you with a more in-depth insight into the market. Here are a few of the popular bike-sharing apps in the market.

1. Ola Pedal
2. PEDL (Zoomcar)
3. Yulu
4. OFO
5. Mobycy

Features to be Integrated in a Bike Sharing App

With a bike rental app, the user can rent a bike for making nearby trips. Nowadays, it is even considered as a public transportation method. A bike-sharing app is an affordable and convenient option for users. In this section, we are going to include the features to be integrated into a bike-sharing app like Mobike. 

Mainly, there are two kinds of stakeholders in this solution:

1. Service Provider

• Chat Support: As a service provider, you can easily chat with the users who wish to book the bike in real-time or advance.
• Price Management: The provider can vary the rental prices of the vehicles as per the demands.
• Push Notifications: The admin can push notifications about various things like app versions, or much more.
• Manage Ratings: The admin can easily manage all the ratings and feedback from the app users.
• Booking Management: The service provider can quickly approve or cancel the booking made through the app.
• Trip Details: The service provider should provide the details of a trip to the app users.
• Customer Support: Provide friendly support to the users for easy query solving.

2. The Rentee

• Register: The bike renting app demands the users to first make a registration either by their email or social media accounts. After that, the user would have to use the same credentials for logging into the app.
• OTP Verification: Upon registration, the consumer would have to enter an OTP received on their phones for verification.
• Create Profile: Once the user has logged into the app, then he would be expected to fill the details about himself for a smooth app experience.
• KYC Setup: Here the rentee would have to scan his pan card and driving license for security reasons.
• Google Map Integration: The integrated Google Maps would help the users in easy navigation.
• GPS location: The consumers can check out the location of their bike using the app and obtain directions.
• Select a Bike: The app will allow users to choose their favourite bike from numerous available options.
• Make a Booking: The bike-sharing app allows the user to make bookings whenever they require: now, later, or with some specific timing.
• QR codes: Once the user makes a booking, then he/she can scan the QR code for unlocking their bike.
• Ride History: The user can log into the portal and check the records of their past rides.
• Make Payments: For availing the bike services, the user would have to pay a specific amount through a secured gateway like Stripe, PayPal, or others.
• Cancel Bookings: The user can easily cancel their booking by a few taps in the app.
• Discounts: The user can get notifications about various discounts from the admin.
• Rate and Review: After experiencing the app, the user can rate and review their experience with the software or ride.

Required Tech-Stack for developing a Bike Sharing App

For developing a qualitative and convenient bike rental app, usage of the right technology is very much important. Matellio has brought you the required tech-stack for the same:

Required Development Team Structure

For developing a bike-sharing app like mobike, one needs to hire the following set of experts:

• Business Analysts
• UI/UX Designers
• Project Manager
• iOS Developer
• Android Developer
• Web Developer
• QA Experts
• Marketers

Avail these technologies for your Bike Sharing App Development

• Machine Learning Algorithms

Based on the traffic analysis in the city, the requirement of public transport, and the number of active users, ML algorithms can support in predicting the users’ demand, especially in new localities. Use this data in addition to the luring offers, and you can meet the user’s demand smartly.

• Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics provide you different insights into the users’ data for your app. Map all the possible routes a consumer may have gone through in a month. This will help in providing a better bike at the precise time matching the users’ needs. For partnering with brands, complex data can help you in calculating the users’ direction with better precision.

• IoT Ecosystem

The tracking and locking system of all the bikes will ensure the safety of your assets. Matellio’s expertise in IoT solution development can allow you to have an eye on all bikes. 

How to Monetize your Bike Sharing App like Mobike?

If you are investing in the development of a bike-sharing app like Mobike, then it is natural to expect some returns from it. Here are some of the ways of monetizing your bike-sharing app:

• Pay Per Ride: Although this is the core of the whole app idea, still, as per the title, we are mentioning it here. Users would have to pay a certain amount for renting a bike. This kind would help in generating constant revenue as long as there are sales.
• Subscriptions: Allow the users to sign for different kinds of membership (weekly, monthly, or yearly) and avail benefits through a chargeable amount.
• Advertisements: To gain some monetary profits, you can allow different kinds of advertisements on your application. If you have a broad customer base, then you can choose to partner with brands for the geographical targeting of the people.
• Discounts: Increase your customer base and hence the revenue by offering various kinds of discounts and offers in the app.

How much does it Cost to Develop a Bike Sharing App like Mobike?   

The development cost of bike-sharing application is dependent on various factors, such as:

• Application Design: The app design is the first thing to leave an impression on your users. Many people think that designing is all about how your app looks, but it isn’t true. It is how your app functions. Have systematic planning for designing the app.
• Complexity of Features: We have already listed the different kinds of features you must integrate into your application. Undoubtedly, all these functionalities come at a cost. As you go on advancing the complexity and number of features, the cost of development will keep on rising. We suggest you start with an MVP (Minimal Viable Product) and then keep updating the versions as the popularity of your bike-sharing app grows.
• Development Platform: Once the decision of app development has been taken, the next challenging thing that comes in the way is choosing the development platform for the same. Based on your platform choice, the prices for development will vary. You can develop an app for Android, iOS, or Windows, but seeing the current scenario, we advise you to go for all the three platforms.
• Payment Integration: For enabling people to rent a bike or buy a subscription, you have to integrate different payment options, like a Credit card, Debit card, PayPal, Net Banking, and much more. For integrating these payment modes, a certain amount has to be paid, which is a significant factor in determining the cost of development.
• Application Quality: A qualitative app demands a price, and it may demand a higher rate than the regular app. An app with qualitative features but the poor quality is bound to fail in the market. Hence, even if you have to pay a bit extra for quality, don’t hesitate!

All the factors mentioned above are generics in deciding the development cost, but for a precise quotation- talk to our experts!

If you think it is a lost opportunity, then hold on!

Yes, we agree that there are already prevailing bike-sharing apps in the market, but that doesn’t mean you can’t develop a solution of your choice. After all, Amazon and Flipkart were already eCommerce applications, stepped into the market, and made their place owing to their uniqueness.

Got some ideas?

Consider sharing with us! Matellio is a 20+ year experienced software engineering studio, known for developing cutting edge solutions. Our team holds expertise in web and mobile app development and avail advanced technologies like IoT, AI, ML for meeting our clients’ expectation bars. 

Did you like the article? Do let us know in the comment box below. Till then, Happy Riding!

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