共享单车在中国：老瓶装新酒

⊙ By Jessica Meyers

翻译：思苇

共享单车在中国：老瓶装新酒

⊙ By Jessica Meyers

翻译：思苇

SHARING BIKES: AN OLD FRIEND WITH A NEW STORY

They’re suddenly outside public toilets, inalleys[小巷], on bridges, or nearunderpasses[地下通道].

These bikes are an attempt by two Chinesestartups[创业公司]to fuel a cycling renaissance. Mobike and Ofo Bicycle allow riders to unlock bicycles with a smartphone and drop them at their destination. While bike-sharing options exist around the world, few have made riding one this simple.

“We were looking at how cities have become filled with more traffic jams and pollution, and wondered what we could do and what we should do,” said Mobike cofounder Hu Weiwei.

Both businesseslaunched[开始]in 2015,broadened[扩大]to several Chinese cities, watched their staffs grow to nearly 300 people each and started planning internationalexpansions[扩张]. Mobike aims to bring them to Singapore in 2017. Ofo expects to do the same, along with San Francisco and London.

Ofo’s five founders hatched their plan as students at Peking University, and started the service on college campuses. When riders come across the yellow bikes, they unlock them with a codetexted[发短信]to their phone. A trip costs one Yuan an hour.

“We want to be a whole new kind of bikesharing platform,” said Li Zekun, Ofo’s 26-yearold public relations director. “We want bikes to be more than necessity. It’s a lifestyle.”

China counted 670 million bikes two decades ago. By 2013, that number had dropped by nearly half. Mobike and Ofo bet society’s values are changing once again. They see these bikes as asustainable[可持续的]alternative, either as a replacement for short commutes or inconjunction[连接]with public transport.

And it’s all thanks to smartphones. China now has 1.3 billion mobile phone users. Many not only use them to chat and text, but to order dinner,hail[叫]a cab and pay their electricity bills.

“The Chinese mobileecosystem[生态系统]may be the mostinnovative[创新的]on the planet,” said Jeffrey Towson, a professor of investment at Peking University. “Not only are these mobile apps awesome, but they areoutrunning[超过]the West.”

Again, the bicycle is big in Beijing.

Both businesses launched in 2015, broadened to several Chinese cities, watched their staffs grow to nearly 300 people each and started planning international expansions.

一些同学在英语表达上有个误区：要用生词、难词、大词，或者特别复杂的从句套从句才能体现自己的语言能力。其实这种做法一来容易用错，在考试时造成失分，二来在表达上往往弄巧反拙。比如这个句子介绍了两家公司的情况，句型非常简单，四个动词都很常见，但是分句与分句之间有着清晰的时间关系。作者通过简洁有力的语言一下子就把问题说清楚了，值得我们好好学习。

它们突然间全冒出来了——在公厕外面，在小巷里，在桥上，或者在隧道旁边。

这些自行车是两家新公司——摩拜单车公司和ofo共享单车公司在中国复兴骑行文化的一次尝试。用户可以通过智能手机解锁两家公司的共享单车，骑到目的地把它们随手停放即可。尽管世界各地都有不同形式的共享单车，能够让骑车变得如此简单的做法却并不多见。

“眼看着大城市的交通拥堵和空气污染情况越来越严重，我们就想，我们能做些什么，我们应该做些什么，”摩拜公司创始人之一胡玮炜这样说道。

这两家企业都成立于2015年，随后将业务推广到中国其他几个城市，各自的员工队伍壮大到近300人的规模，还准备拓展海外市场。摩拜公司打算在2017年将共享单车服务推广到新加坡，ofo公司也准备去新加坡，另外还要在美国旧金山和英国伦敦发展业务。

ofo公司的五位老板早在北京大学读书时就开始了这项创业计划，并在多所大学校园推出服务。用户看到这些黄色的自行车时，通过发送到自己手机上的二维码，就可以进行解锁。每次使用的花费是一小时一元。

26岁的李泽堃是ofo公司的公关总监，他说：“我们想成为一个全新的共享单车平台。我们希望自行车不止是生活必需品，还能成为一种生活方式。”

二十年前，全中国有6.7亿辆自行车；到了2013年，这个数字锐减近半。摩拜公司和ofo公司赌的是整个社会的价值观会再次发生改变。他们将自行车视为一种更具可持续性的出行选择，既可以作为短程通勤的代步工具，也可以用来与公共交通对接。

而这一切都是多亏了智能手机才能实现。中国现在拥有13亿手机用户，大多数人并不仅仅用手机来聊天或者发短信，他们还会用来点餐、打车，以及支付电费。

“中国的移动产业生态可能是全世界最有创新力的，”北京大学投资学教授杰弗里·托尔森说。“这些手机应用不但好用，而且在竞争力上远远胜过西方同行。”

又一次，自行车成了北京城的一道盛景。