In June 2018, bike-sharing startup oBike abruptly shut its Singapore operations, abandoning some 14,000 bicycles across the island and leaving about one million users fighting to recover S$49 deposits, in one of the country's messiest consumer scandals.
Singapore-headquartered oBike, which launched in January 2017, had ridden the dockless bike-sharing boom to more than a million users. On 25 June 2018, it announced it would cease Singapore operations, blaming difficulties meeting new Land Transport Authority regulations on fleet size and parking. The decision did not affect its overseas markets, the company said, but its Singapore office had already been vacated and the in-app refund button had mysteriously disappeared.
Users erupted. The company's Facebook announcement was flooded with more than a thousand comments bearing the hashtag #refundmydeposit, and a petition demanding refunds gathered thousands of signatures. Many users reported that their deposits had been converted into Super VIP subscriptions without their knowledge. The Consumers Association of Singapore said it received 259 complaints within days, and later revealed that oBike had used customer deposits to fund its operations, calling the move unethical and unacceptable.
The numbers were stark: oBike owed S$6.3 million in user deposits, plus more than S$140,000 in fines to town councils for abandoned bikes. Co-founder Edward Chen, speaking from China, confirmed the company was being liquidated and said there was an existing plan for refunds, but users saw little money returned. Senior Minister of State for Transport Janil Puthucheary told Parliament it was oBike's responsibility to refund deposits and remove its bicycles, warning legal action was possible.
On 12 July 2018, provisional liquidators FTI Consulting invited affected customers to submit deposit claims online, but with the company in liquidation, unsecured users ranked behind other creditors. The LTA called it deeply disappointing when oBike suggested that fines for unremoved bikes could eat into deposit repayments.
oBike's collapse became the emblematic failure of the platform economy's boom-and-bust cycle in Singapore, arriving just months after Uber's exit had already left consumers with fewer choices. It prompted hard questions about why regulators allowed a startup to collect tens of millions in deposits without safeguarding them, and the silver-and-yellow bikes rusting in drains and parks remained a visible monument to the fiasco for months.
The firm had drawn complaints well before its exit: CASE received 27 complaints against oBike Asia between January and June 2018 alone. In its farewell statement, oBike thanked more than a million users and noted that Super VIP members could still use its services in other operating countries, a consolation that did little for Singaporeans owed deposits. Marketing observers noted the episode set a damaging precedent for investor confidence in bike-sharing startups across the region.