Ofo is out: Just a year after launching 40,000 lemon-yellow bicycles in more than 30 different markets in the United States, the Chinese dockless bikesharing company is scaling back its operations and has laid off 70 percent of its North American operations team, as Quartz reported recently.
Ofo’s American journey ends where it began: Seattle. Last Monday, the City Council voted to make its pilot dockless bikesharing program permanent and made allowance for doubling the total bikes and e-scooters roaming the city to 20,000 vehicles. After the Emerald City’s docked bikeshare system, Pronto, went belly up in early 2017, the city became an exciting (and downright goofy) testing ground for the new experiment in dockless bikesharing. Up to four companies could remain in Seattle to duke it out for riders, but Ofo has bowed out.