CityBee completes its first electric scooter season, notes clear differences among the Baltic countries
CityBee, the largest provider of shared mobility services in the Baltics, ended longer than six-month electric scooter season. During this period the company’s clients in three Baltic countries made nearly half a million trips. Customers’ habits show an increasing need for micro-mobility services, therefore, CityBee plans to offer electric scooters again next year.
CityBee's e-kick scooters appeared first in Vilnius, in April. In time, people were able to use them in Kaunas and at the Lithuanian seaside. A bit later, the little city bees arrived in Latvia and Estonia as well. In total, 468 700 trips were made with CityBee scooters in the Baltics.
"Since Lithuania was our first electric scooter market, that's where we have the most users – the number here reaches 82 thousand. In Riga we launched the service later, accordingly, the number of registered CityBee scooter users there is 39 thousand. Tallinn surprised us the most. Even though we started there last and the city's population is the smallest among all the Baltic capitals, within a short time an impressive number of 35 thousand users registered," CityBee CEO Lukas Yla commented the company's results of the debut season for the service.
He said that while people in the capital of Latvia were not the most active users of this innovation in urban mobility, they stood out in their own way. It was Latvians' trips with CityBee scooters that were the longest. The average distance covered in Riga was 3-6 kilometers. In Lithuania and Estonia, an average of 2-4 km was covered.
"Lithuanians, who were the first ones to get the chance to use CityBee scooters, made the most trips in total – 350 thousand. In fact, though, on average they spent the least time on these means of transportation, just over 21 minutes. Estonians spent a bit more time on the scooters, about 23 minutes on average. Latvians stood out once more – their trips were the longest, with an average of more than 34 minutes," Yla noted.
Summing up CityBee's first e-kick scooter season, the CEO said the results exceeded expectations, even if it is still much too early, he added, to talk about profit.
"Our main goal at this stage is to develop high-quality, convenient and accessible micro-mobility service. Thus, all the revenue is reinvested, and that will be seen next year when we carry out planned improvements of the service," Yla said.
Next year, he said, the plan is to continue expanding the service and offer users new, even more convenient e-kick scooter model.
"Talking about electric scooters, it's important to note their fast rise in popularity and active use, which show that this new urban micro-mobility service found a place for itself and quickly took root. We see that trend in the Baltics, and it's seen all over the world. Electric scooters got popular much faster than, say, ridesharing services," the head of CityBee explained.
It is calculated that a full 60 percent of all urban trips are short, less than 5 km. More than half of those are just 1-2 km. Electric scooters make it fast and easy to cover those distances, and that, according to Lukas Yla, is one of the main reasons this means of transportation is getting ever more entrenched as part of everyday city life.
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