BANGKOK, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's dock-less bike-sharing company ofo on Thursday told Xinhua that they have launched their bike-sharing service in the Thai tourist resort island of Phuket with 1,000 Smart Lock bikes.
In a statement sent to media, Ofo said they launched the service on Wednesday in collaboration with a local company Phuket City Development to leverage the convenient and flexible journey to every users.
Ofo's regular service fee will be charged at 5 Baht per 30 minutes usage, with a deposit fee of 99 Baht.
From Oct. 1, users in Phuket can even enjoy 1-month free trial without deposit fee.
According to Ofo Thailand's General Manager Noppol Toochinda, at the first phase, Ofo has provided more than 1,000 smart-lock bikes in Phuket's key locations including Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus, Phuket Merlin Hotel,The Pearl Phuket Hotel, The Tint At Phuket Town Hotel, Limelight Avenue Phuket, Sengho Bookstore, Robinson Phuket, Bang Neaw Shrine, Phuket Rajaphat University, Saphan Hin Park and Phuket Oldtown.
Noppol said in the statement that Phuket is the pilot province of Ofo to initiate its service and to support a local Smart City project, which they are very pleased to be a part in fulfilling and enhancing the new cycling experience in Phuket.
"On Sept. 24, Phuket Car Free Day will be held to promote the reduction of car using in Phuket. We would like to invite Phuket residents and tourists to be part of this activity by stop using cars and try Ofo bicycle service," Noppol added.
Bike-sharing is a bike rental service that combines with technology on mobile application. Users can find bikes on the map and simply use it by scanning QR Code to unlock the bike.
These bikes are usually designed for travel within one to five km in order to reduce travel costs and parking problems in heavy traffic areas.
For "appropriate parking", according to Ofo, the designated park locations will be displayed on the application.
Ofo currently operates in more than 170 cities across nine countries, with more than 10 million bicycles available, generating more than 25 million daily transactions. It began to run service in Thailand in August with 1,000 ofo bikes in Thammasat University-Rangsit Campus.
The Chinese company said it considers Thailand as one of the strategic areas in expanding its service in Southeast Asia due to a population of over 70 million, with more than 700,000 students and an annual number of more than 9 million Chinese tourists visiting the kingdom.
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