Paris wants to regulate Asian bike-share firms

Some cities fear that the uncontrolled introduction of thousands of bicycles will bring chaos on roads and sidewalks, as has happened in China

Paris does not want Asian bike-sharing operators to burst into the city the way Airbnb and Uber did and plans to introduce regulation to ensure an orderly rollout of new bicycle schemes.

Launched just last week, Hong Kong’s Gobee.bike has already spread its bikes all over Paris and Chinese giants Ofo and Mobike, as well as Singapore startup oBike, see entering the French capital as a key step in their plans to conquer Europe’s city centres.

Armed with hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital, the Asian bike-sharing firms, which have revolutionised urban transport in China, have already launched their colourful