On the afternoon of July 15th, it was reported by Sina Technology last December that Joyy Group was internally testing the electric scooter business, and the new project was named 3KM. Recently, Sina Technology learned about the latest progress of this business. An informed source disclosed that the shared scooter is named Ario, and the first batch of shared electric scooters has been officially put into use overseas in the second quarter of this year.
This means that Joyy Group, which has always based on overseas pan-entertainment social interaction, has officially entered the field of overseas short-distance travel. The informed source revealed that the business model of Ario is no different from that of current overseas shared electric scooters. When users unlock it, a fixed fee is charged, and then a fee is charged by the minute.
Sina Technology learned that the first deployment city of Ario is Auckland, New Zealand, with a deployment volume of more than 150 units, but the operating area does not cover the entire Auckland, only the central and western parts. If the user drives into a restricted area or leaves the operating area, the scooter will intelligently slow down until it stops.
According to the previous report by Sina Technology, the scooter business aims to solve the transportation problem within 3 kilometers in urban areas, so the project is named 3KM. When the scooter was internally tested, Li Xuefeng, the chairman of Joyy Group, once called on employees to support it in the internal group. In addition, a person close to Li Xuefeng told Sina Technology that Li Xuefeng also privately shared this project among friends and mentioned that it was something he newly did.
As a short-distance代步 tool, shared electric scooters have been popular in many overseas markets in previous years, and operators such as Neuron and Lime have all received financing. And currently in the Auckland market, there are already relatively mature operators such as Lime and Beam, and Ario is obviously a late entrant. In addition, electric scooter accidents have occurred frequently in recent years, making it a big challenge for operators in applying for operating licenses and safety insurance.