Uber Moves To Become A Global Bike-Sharing Service By Acquiring Jump

Earlier in April 2018, Uber announced that it had acquired Jump Bikes, a dock-free electric bike sharing service with a presence limited to San Francisco. Despite the company’s small footprint, Uber, which had partnered with Jump for a pilot electric bike-sharing program called Uber Bike through the ridesharing company’s existing app, may have paid in excess of $100 million (or even up to $200 million) for the company, its infrastructure, and its technology.

Uber will take on 100 Jump employees in the acquisition in the hopes that what started as a pilot program will become a global operation in the same vein as their core ridesharing service. Jump will continue to operate as an independent company, albeit one owned entirely by Uber.

To that end, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that both operations may be more closely linked than it would appear at first glance.

“Our ultimate goal is one we share with cities around the world: making it easier to live without owning a personal car,” he said in Uber’s blog post announcing the acquisition. “…That’s why we’re committed to bringing together multiple modes of transportation within the Uber app — so that you can choose the fastest or most affordable way to get where you’re going, whether that’s in an Uber, on a bike, on the subway, or more.”

According to a Tech Crunch conversation with Jump CEO Ryan Rzepecki, what sold Uber on the acquisition was Jump’s plans and vision to scale across the globe despite its modest positioning today.

The New York Times asserts the pilot partnership between the two companies revealed that the average Jump customer traveled almost as far as Uber customers do in cars — around 2.6 miles. The program also found that each bike was used “six or seven times a day.”

In the current Uber Bike program, the app displays a “bike” option that allows users to reserve a bike and ride it at a flat rate of $2 for 30 minutes then on a per-minute basis after.

Lyft — it’s your move.