China's mobile bicycle-sharing platforms have seen their bikes sabotaged in many cities, as their expansion across the country runs into local resistance, while a leading bike sharing app said it would not be put off by this behavior.
A man in Jinan, East China's Shandong Province, was detained for stacking up over 10 bikes provided by Mobike because they blocked his newsstand, local police reported on Sina Weibo on Saturday.
In Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, several Mobikes were thrown into a ditch by security guards at a National 5A Scenic Area before being recovered, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday.
The East Lake scenic spot said in a statement on Friday that Mobike offers convenience for tourists, but can "disturb the spot's management." The head of security was fired Friday and asked to compensate Mobike.
Mobike has said they will provide designated parking spaces and employ people to help the public learn how to park the shared bicycles.
In Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province, rival ofo bikes have been sabotaged, with the QR codes used to unlock the bikes being destroyed or locals attaching their own locks, the West Strait Morning Post reported on Sunday.
To better regulate the bicycle sharing market, Xiamen Gardens Bureau has published a guide on locations to park the bicycles, Xinhua reported Saturday.
The scale of bike-sharing in China has flourished. Beijing had more than 100,000 Mobikes and rival ofo put 110,000 bikes on the city's street in 2016, data from Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport shows.
"On average, fewer than 1 percent of the bikes in cities have been sabotaged, and we won't let this behavior put us off," ofo spokesperson Shi Shaochen said Sunday.
"We call on local authorities to crack down on illegal behavior like this, and we believe this behavior will disappear gradually. People really love these bikes."
Mobike, founded in 2015, has launched bike-sharing services in 20 cities in China.
Both schemes have major tech backers, with Mobike backed by Tencent, and ofo by car hailing company Didi Chuxing.
