China bike sharing goes to Kazaskhtan

Smart companies from China are attending the Astana Expo 2017, hoping to use the event to expand their businesses into the central Asian country. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also attending the event, together with representatives from the Shanghai Cooperation Organizaton summit. Bike-sharing service ofo is one of them and the company has just placed 1,000 cycles in Astana, Xinhua reported. People in the capital can instantly hop on after downloading the app and scanning the QR code. The famous yellow bike company announced on Friday that it had entered the Kazakh market after rounds of negotiations with local authorities. Kazakhstan is the fourth overseas market for ofo, following Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. The 1,000 bikes were deployed for a trial run, and a Russian translation was added to the app. During trial operations, the bicycle-sharing service will primarily cover the Expo area. Bike sharing is all the rage across China. The service's founder and CEO Dai Wei said he plans to roll out the service in around 20 countries and regions, mostly participating nations in the Belt and Road Initiative. The ofo bike-sharing service was launched at Peking University in 2014. It's now serving people in 120 cities. Alongside Mobike and Bluegogo, it's one of the leading players in China's current craze for affordable rent-a-bike services.