George Yang, Author at Goody Feed

Before 25 November 2018, Ofo Singapore Facebook page posted every few days, with contents ranging from people cycling to short videos that don’t make sense. (But that's okay; we at Goody Feed also post things that don’t make sense.) Then, from 25 November 2018 onwards, they stopped posting. Did everyone decided to take leave at the same time? Did they lose access to their Facebook account? Did a cat hack into their account? Or…did a company that manages their Facebook page decides to call it quits because Ofo hasn’t been paying them? While we don’t have an answer for their 218,193 followers, this latest revelation might provide some context. Because since November 2018, Ofo Singapore has gone MIA. Calls for Refunds Unanswered Yesterday, my colleague wrote about how Singaporeans were having difficulty contacting Ofo for their refunds in recent weeks, and how their office has been vacated. It turned out that the problem is much bigger than that—it could be oBiked. Yes, I’ve said it: Ofo might have been oBiked. According to a report by TODAYonline, two logistic companies claim that Ofo has, in total, owed them up to $814K, and these invoices were due a few months back. Both supplied lorries to Ofo, and they claimed that Ofo has been dragging the payment, sometimes with no answer. And they've threatened legal actions against Ofo. Not Just Logistics Firms Ofo doesn’t just owe logistic firms money: a recruitment company has supplied 200 temporary workers to take the role of bike marshals—they, too, are demanding payment from the bike-sharing firm. In addition, Ofo owed former and current staff money as well, primarily in claims, with a former employee being owed a totality of $5,000. Office Suddenly Vacated, Current Staff Told to ‘Wait and see’ For some reason, Ofo doesn’t have its own office premises in Singapore: instead, they work in a co-working space in a rather atas area: AXA Tower along Shenton Way. According to JustCo, the co-working space Ofo has been operating in, they’ve moved out at the end of November, when their lease ends on end of December. Apparently, there are still 15 “employed” staff, and I’ve added the quotations for a reason. They were told that the company could not promise that they would be paid for December, and allegedly told them this: “You just wait and see.” Yesterday, it’s revealed that its general manager sent a message to their staff: “For me, I enjoy every single day in OFO even (when) it's tough…try to appreciate it as long as you get the salary every month.” Wah, now I think my boss is quite noble to pay our salary every month. Boss you goody man! I appreciate the salary every month! What’s Left? To me, bike-sharing bikes are yellow. Anything that’s not yellow belongs to someone else. That means I’m only familiar with two bike-sharing companies: oBike and Ofo. And the numbers show, too: before oBike ghosted us, they had about 40,000 to 50,000 bikes lying around Singapore. Ofo has over 70,000 bikes, and with the new licensing framework, they’re supposed to have less than 25,000 bikes, but soon requested to reduce that to 10,000 bikes. On the other hand, Mobike will have 25,000 bikes while SG Bikes have 3,000 In other words, if the licensing framework is followed accordingly, and with Ofo out of the picture, there would be a total of less than 30,000 bikes in Singapore—a lot lower than the 100,000 we used to have. And with the new parking system that’s coming into effect next month, I guess we’ll have less cyclists on the road. After all, we just have one less cyclist since last week, no?

George Yang

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