Rotterdam is the main Dutch battleground for shared e-scooter companies. In this blog I’ll explain how these companies try to gain a foothold and the characteristics of the local market. Last, you get some tips for testing them yourself.
But first, how did it start? In 2018, the start-up Felyx was the first to arrive in the city. The founders weren’t unfamiliar with Rotterdam as one of them is a former EUR student. The business concept was born when driving a car2go in Amsterdam. However, a car in the big city is far from the fastest way to move around. The scooter is. To get a municipality like Rotterdam on board there needed to be something in it for them, too. The e-scooter was the answer as it isn’t loud and locally polluting (Hollingsworth, J., Copeland, B. and Johnson, J.X., 2019). The sharing functions are enabled by IoT technology.
Soon there were hundreds of free-floating scooters to be found all around the city. At first, students were the main target group later expanding into young professionals and freelancers as well (Top of Minds. 2020). The new concept was mainly appealing as it was fun to drive the scooters, but customers soon identified improved convenience and freedom of this transport mode in comparison with their own bike. In that way it is surprising that this concept can be successful in a biking country like The Netherlands.
Fast forwarding to now, there are yet two companies that have joined Felyx in Rotterdam: Check and GoSharing. They all have different ways in which they try to lure you to their platform. Felyx has the advantage of being the incumbent with Felyx being an acronym for e-scooter. They leverage this by charging a relatively high per-minute fee and no staring fee. GoSharing uses volume deals to get you addicted to scooter sharing. Starting with an average per-minute fee when using the scooters without a deal but getting pretty cheap when you buy large minute packages. They limit the amount of free minutes when joining the platform. Check did exactly the opposite by rampaging into Rotterdam with a low per-minute fee, no starting fee and 15 euros of worth of riding for free.
The market-entry tactics have led to a strange dynamic in this market. Felyx is going reasonably steady as they haven’t performed stunts to gain market share at any time. At Check, this is a different story: their market-entry tactics have lead to giving out so many free minutes of riding that it took them months to boost revenues. The upside is a considerable gain in the number of users. The upcoming months will tell if they can retain them now that riding is not free and a starting fee is introduced. GoSharing is found to compete less on price. What they are doing is connecting edge cities and suburban areas of Rotterdam by creating service areas in villages. Commuters are able to pick scooters up close to home and drop them in the city centre. At the end of the day they can find an available scooter again to travel back.
Time will tell whether this is a winner takes all market, like many recently disrupted markets are. In the meantime all of the providers have found investors with deep pockets, currently favoring the consumer. I think there will be space for multiple providers. Furthermore, I believe that the most important aspect is the availability of scooters in the right places at the right time and second is the ease of combining trips with other transport modes such as the subway.
Are you interested in trying one of these services out? Get some free riding minutes with Check promocode MMN-GN4, Felyx code RSqGv8CW or GoSharing code XZ26IZ.
If you’re already using shared e-scooters in Rotterdam I’m looking forward to hearing from you in the comments. Which provider do you like and why? And do you think the market will eventually head towards a monopoly or will there be space for 3 or more providers in the future?
References:
Hollingsworth, J., Copeland, B. and Johnson, J.X., 2019. Are e-scooters polluters? The environmental impacts of shared dockless electric scooters. Environmental Research Letters, 14(8), p.084031.
Top of Minds. 2020. Carrière Advies Van Quinten Selhorst En Maarten Poot | Top Of Minds. [online] Available at: [Accessed 8 October 2020].
Hi Matthijs,
Thank you for your interesting article! I think it is a very relevant topic and it’s true you see the e-scooters from Felyx, Check and GoSharing all over the city!
I am originally from Rotterdam so whenever I am there I just find it so easy to take an e-scooter instead of using my bike or going by public transportation.
I personally use both Felyx and Check. The simple reason for this is actually that I got promocodes for both to start my account. I don’t actually prefer one over the other, I make my decision on which provider to use on which e-scooter is closest to me!
Regarding your question whether I think that the market will eventually head towards a monopoly or that there is room for 3 or more providers, I think that 3 providers is sufficient. For instance, I think that an extra provider will not bring something new to the market and I think it will be very hard for, in this case, a fourth provider to be profitable and compete with the 3 existing providers.
Also, I think the concept of Felyx and the other two providers actually works best in a city like Rotterdam. For example, in Amsterdam I actually never use e-scooters since it is mandatory to wear a helmet and there are other restrictions such as that scooters are not allowed on bike lanes in most areas. This makes it harder for e-scooter providers to enter the market, I believe.
Lastly, I would like to add that maybe there would be a market for different sharing means of transportation such as scooters (for the Dutch ‘Step’), which are already very popular in other large cities outside the Netherlands.
And thanks for you promocodes!
Very interesting topic, especially as it’s so close to our personal lives! The way these companies disrupted the private transportation industry is very remarkable due to (like you’ve mentioned), the Dutch’s biking culture. Personally, I’ve only used Felyx which is partly due to the convenience of always having a Felyx option at the places I visit and possible due to its first mover advantage; since I’m already satisfied with the company, there is no need to explore further possibilities. An interesting remark on Felyx’s marketing strategies. You’ve mentioned that Felyx hasn’t “performed stunts to gain market share at any time”, but it actually provides many opportunities to its customers to receive free minutes. Also, in the beginning stage they had a huge national stunt where they asked students to drive the Felyx scooters to Rotterdam, in return for free minutes. This helped the company get the Felyx scooters in the right city at a low cost.
Whether Felyx is going to maintain its position as first mover and takes in the position of monopolist or if it’s going to hand in a part of their market share to its competitor, is hard to determine. In general, it’s hard to decide the competitive nature as it’s still the early stages and it’s not clear where these companies are going to expand to (what cities/countries, and what market segments) and how the companies are going to implement changes in the future.
Hi Matthijs,
First of all I’d like to applaud your shameless plug of your referall codes hahaha! Wish I had done it first!
However, I do not agree with how you said Felyx started, and believe their business model is in danger.
Felyx started by copying step-sharing platforms (the scooter you can stand on, with two small wells).
These steps were, and are, not yet approved by the RVO, thus making them illegal on the Dutch streets.
The moment they do get approved, they pose as serious threat to the bulky e-scooters by Felyx, Go and Check.
These steps are a tenth of the production price, which means a new start-up can place many steps in cities, at cheaper per minute rates.
What do you think, will Felyx, Check and GoSharing be replaced when these steps are approved?
Michiel