The concept of the Internet of Things (Iot) was proposed by Kevin Ashton at the MIT Auto-ID Center in 1999. In a nutshell, it describes the network of everyday objects that surround us are connected to the internet. These networks are becoming especially large, with many nodes, as is the case with shared bicycles that circulate in Chinese cities such as Beijing.
Despite the fact that, until relatively recently, traveling by bicycle was typical of the lower class in the country, cars have been cornering themselves in recent years. Especially since the end of 2015, when bike-sharing startups Mobike and Ofo have started supplying tens of millions of bicycles connected to the internet.
Mobike
In December 2016, the Mobike company made Shanghai the largest bike-sharing city in the world . In August 2018, he launched an electric version of his orange bike. We are facing a spectacular growth of a company that, in early 2016, unable to buy bicycles from suppliers with the required specifications, had to build its own units.
Mobike equipped its bikes with QR codes and internet-connected smart locks around the rear wheel. To use it, then, all you have to do is scan the code with your mobile phone (using the Mobike App): the padlock opens automatically .
The bicycles are not located at a collection and return point, but are scattered throughout the city and the user can leave them where they deem appropriate after use. The cost of the trip is calculated based on the distance traveled and the time that has been used.
This ease of use has led to bicycles becoming fashionable, registering in autumn 2017 the figure of 22 million journeys per day . The orange and silver ones are those of Mobike. The yellow ones are from the Ofo brand. The rest of the colors belong to copycat companies.
IoT on wheels
But what is truly revolutionary about this new means of transport that has caught on in China is what is not seen at first glance. As the units are continuously connected to the internet, they can transmit data on their movements, thanks to the built-in GPS that works with solar energy, Bluetooth and NFC technology (a platform for identification and validation of equipment).
All these sensors, together, generate a huge amount of data that can feed the artificial intelligence algorithms of the company behind Mobike, Tencent, a Chinese multinational whose subsidiaries provide internet products and services such as instant messaging, online multimedia, services value-added mobile and telecommunications services, Interactive Entertainment service, E-Commerce and online advertising service. In total, it is estimated that all bicycles generate about 20 terabytes of data per day, which are uploaded to the Mobike cloud.
The downside of all this is that other companies are offering their models at a lower cost, and that this price war has caused the streets of cities to fill with bicycles, many of them unused. Some companies have gone bankrupt, and millions of bicycles had to be transported to makeshift landfills. Finally, no one knows very well where these radical changes will be headed, mixed with financial bubbles or trends towards a dangerous monopoly, but what seems clear is that the bicycle market is going to continue transforming China and its connectivity. Not surprisingly, this immense bicycle network has already been the largest in the world in the so-called Internet of Things .
