G-Bike, which operates the electric scooter sharing service platform 'Gcooter', announced on the 23rd that it has surpassed the cumulative riding count of 51.57 million, exceeding the population of South Korea, being the first in the industry to do so.
Electric scooters are emerging as an alternative to traditional automobiles for short-distance travel within major cities, and are evolving as a key component of integrated mobility services (MaaS; Mobility as a Service) through connections with various modes of transportation such as city buses, urban rail, and shared vehicles.
Since starting the service in 2019 with 300 electric scooters, Gcooter has recently expanded its fleet to 45,000 devices. It receives high praise for greatly improving accessibility, the most important element of service utilization, by expanding infrastructure to make it available within a 10-minute distance based on major cities nationwide.
In the first half of this year alone, the number of rides exceeded 14 million. Particularly, starting with the onset of the peak summer in July, the repeat ride rate exceeded 80%, with the number of rides increasing by approximately 2.2 times compared to the same month last year.
Gcooter revenue in 2021 was approximately 33.5 billion won, achieving threefold growth in just one year. Global enterprise Beam, serving the Asia Pacific region, recorded sales of 22 million dollars (approximately 26 billion won) last year, placing Gcooter at the top spot in terms of sales in the shared personal mobility industry in Asia. This is more than double the revenue of Helbiz, a Nasdaq-listed company in the United States (Helbiz's 2021 revenue of 12.8 million dollars), and Gcooter revenue per user surpassed that of Netflix.
According to a Gcooter representative, enhancing the customer experience by adopting fares that reflect customer needs, and benefits such as transfer discounts based on data analysis for geographically appropriate distribution to match travel demands, has been effective.
The eco-friendliness of the Gcooter service is also noteworthy. By using Gcooter as a short-distance mode of transportation instead of internal combustion engines such as cars, approximately 200,000 people daily offset about 870 tons of carbon emissions per year. This is equivalent to the effect of planting 1 million deciduous trees annually.
Jong-Soo Yoon, CEO of Gcooter, stated, "With the lift of social distancing measures and seasonal effects, we are seeing an increase in travel demand, and electric scooters are now taking their place as one of the transportation means beyond leisure. We will continue to uncover new drivers of growth and expand our market share quickly through international expansion," he said.
Meanwhile, Gcooter recently established a carbon neutral page within its application to share and spread awareness of the need for carbon neutrality, and is also operating a system that supports incentives based on the environmental contributions of its users.
