共享單車在中國：老瓶裝新酒

⊙ By Jessica Meyers

翻譯：思葦

共享單車在中國：老瓶裝新酒

⊙ By Jessica Meyers

翻譯：思葦

SHARING BIKES: AN OLD FRIEND WITH A NEW STORY

They’re suddenly outside public toilets, inalleys[小巷], on bridges, or nearunderpasses[地下通道].

These bikes are an attempt by two Chinesestartups[創業公司]to fuel a cycling renaissance. Mobike and Ofo Bicycle allow riders to unlock bicycles with a smartphone and drop them at their destination. While bike-sharing options exist around the world, few have made riding one this simple.

“We were looking at how cities have become filled with more traffic jams and pollution, and wondered what we could do and what we should do,” said Mobike cofounder Hu Weiwei.

Both businesseslaunched[開始]in 2015,broadened[擴大]to several Chinese cities, watched their staffs grow to nearly 300 people each and started planning internationalexpansions[擴張]. Mobike aims to bring them to Singapore in 2017. Ofo expects to do the same, along with San Francisco and London.

Ofo’s five founders hatched their plan as students at Peking University, and started the service on college campuses. When riders come across the yellow bikes, they unlock them with a codetexted[發短信]to their phone. A trip costs one Yuan an hour.

“We want to be a whole new kind of bikesharing platform,” said Li Zekun, Ofo’s 26-yearold public relations director. “We want bikes to be more than necessity. It’s a lifestyle.”

China counted 670 million bikes two decades ago. By 2013, that number had dropped by nearly half. Mobike and Ofo bet society’s values are changing once again. They see these bikes as asustainable[可持續的]alternative, either as a replacement for short commutes or inconjunction[連接]with public transport.

And it’s all thanks to smartphones. China now has 1.3 billion mobile phone users. Many not only use them to chat and text, but to order dinner,hail[叫]a cab and pay their electricity bills.

“The Chinese mobileecosystem[生態系統]may be the mostinnovative[創新的]on the planet,” said Jeffrey Towson, a professor of investment at Peking University. “Not only are these mobile apps awesome, but they areoutrunning[超過]the West.”

Again, the bicycle is big in Beijing.

Both businesses launched in 2015, broadened to several Chinese cities, watched their staffs grow to nearly 300 people each and started planning international expansions.

一些同學在英語表達上有個誤區：要用生詞、難詞、大詞，或者特別復雜的從句套從句才能體現自己的語言能力。其實這種做法一來容易用錯，在考試時造成失分，二來在表達上往往弄巧反拙。比如這個句子介紹了兩家公司的情況，句型非常簡單，四個動詞都很常見，但是分句與分句之間有著清晰的時間關系。作者通過簡潔有力的語言一下子就把問題說清楚了，值得我們好好學習。

它們突然間全冒出來了——在公廁外面，在小巷里，在橋上，或者在隧道旁邊。

這些自行車是兩家新公司——摩拜單車公司和ofo共享單車公司在中國復興騎行文化的一次嘗試。用戶可以通過智能手機解鎖兩家公司的共享單車，騎到目的地把它們隨手停放即可。盡管世界各地都有不同形式的共享單車，能夠讓騎車變得如此簡單的做法卻并不多見。

“眼看著大城市的交通擁堵和空氣污染情況越來越嚴重，我們就想，我們能做些什么，我們應該做些什么，”摩拜公司創始人之一胡瑋煒這樣說道。

這兩家企業都成立于2015年，隨后將業務推廣到中國其他幾個城市，各自的員工隊伍壯大到近300人的規模，還準備拓展海外市場。摩拜公司打算在2017年將共享單車服務推廣到新加坡，ofo公司也準備去新加坡，另外還要在美國舊金山和英國倫敦發展業務。

ofo公司的五位老板早在北京大學讀書時就開始了這項創業計劃，并在多所大學校園推出服務。用戶看到這些黃色的自行車時，通過發送到自己手機上的二維碼，就可以進行解鎖。每次使用的花費是一小時一元。

26歲的李澤堃是ofo公司的公關總監，他說：“我們想成為一個全新的共享單車平臺。我們希望自行車不止是生活必需品，還能成為一種生活方式。”

二十年前，全中國有6.7億輛自行車；到了2013年，這個數字銳減近半。摩拜公司和ofo公司賭的是整個社會的價值觀會再次發生改變。他們將自行車視為一種更具可持續性的出行選擇，既可以作為短程通勤的代步工具，也可以用來與公共交通對接。

而這一切都是多虧了智能手機才能實現。中國現在擁有13億手機用戶，大多數人并不僅僅用手機來聊天或者發短信，他們還會用來點餐、打車，以及支付電費。

“中國的移動產業生態可能是全世界最有創新力的，”北京大學投資學教授杰弗里·托爾森說。“這些手機應用不但好用，而且在競爭力上遠遠勝過西方同行。”

又一次，自行車成了北京城的一道盛景。