Dockless bike-sharing startup oBike abruptly quit Singapore in June 2018 and went into liquidation, leaving about a million users fighting to recover mandatory deposits of up to S$49 and sparking a police probe into alleged fund misappropriation.
Founded by Shi Yi, oBike was a homegrown star of the dockless bike-sharing frenzy, operating in more than 70 cities across 20 countries at its peak. Its silver-and-yellow bicycles became a familiar sight on Singapore's sidewalks, until the Land Transport Authority moved to regulate the chaos with licensing requirements on fleet sizes and parking.
In June 2018 oBike announced it was withdrawing from Singapore, citing difficulties meeting the new rules, and falsely suggested its bikes would remain available through the GrabCycle app. Users quickly discovered the refund button had vanished from the app, the company's office appeared vacated, and phone and email inquiries went unanswered. A Facebook post announcing the exit drew thousands of furious comments under the hashtag refundmydeposit.
The Consumers Association of Singapore called the company unethical, arguing that deposits, which were refundable on request, should never have been used to buy bicycles and fund operations but kept in a separate account. To add insult, oBike converted some users' deposits into Super VIP memberships for overseas markets without consent. Senior Minister of State for Transport Janil Puthucheary told Parliament it was oBike's responsibility to produce a concrete refund plan, warning legal action was possible.
Liquidators later said oBike owed an estimated S$8.9 million to its Singapore users, and police opened an investigation into alleged misappropriation of funds after deeming some transactions inappropriate given the company's financial state. A letter was issued to founder Shi Yi demanding the money's return. The company missed deadlines to clear some 14,000 abandoned bicycles from public spaces, with the LTA calling its conduct deeply disappointing.
The saga became the defining fiasco of Singapore's short-lived bike-sharing boom, alongside the retreats of ofo and Mobike, and a textbook example of how a celebrated startup can evaporate overnight, leaving ordinary customers holding the bill.
The oBike fiasco also hardened Singapore's regulatory stance toward sharing-economy startups. The Land Transport Authority's licensing regime, once criticised as heavy-handed, was vindicated in the eyes of many policymakers, and consumer advocates successfully pushed for clearer rules on how customer deposits must be safeguarded. For the million-odd users who never saw their money again, the silver-and-yellow bikes rusting on sidewalks became a lasting symbol of a boom that ended in betrayal.