Almost two years after leaving the Paris market for self-service electric scooters, the Californian company Bird is making a comeback in the capital on a completely different niche: that of free-floating electric bikes, with a starting strategy mainly focused on journeys from the suburbs to Paris.
Bird sets off again to conquer the capital. In July 2020, the mayor of Paris regularized the number of operators authorized to deploy their fleet of electric scooters, after months of chaos and abuse. For Bird, it was the cold shower. One of the pioneers of free-floating was not retained by elected officials, in favor of Lime, Dott and Tiers.
Forced to leave the capital, the Californian company continued to develop its business throughout France. It is now established in 23 cities. “ By the end of 2022, we want to be present in 30 cities for a fleet of 10,000 to 13,000 vehicles deployed “, hopes Mickaël Mamou, general manager of Bird France.
Objective Paris
Currently, Bird has 7,500 machines spread across France. But its site of the moment is near Paris, where the group is making a comeback after almost two years of absence. A return far from being symbolic in his eyes and which is above all intended to verify hypotheses, according to a well-defined strategy.
Thiscomeback ignores electric scooters to put self-service electric bikes at the heart of the project. A major challenge in view of the current market dominated by several public and private players, from Vélib to Dott via Lime and Pony. pedelecs are everywhere. The question being: is there still a piece of the cake to be taken?
For Mickaël Mamou, Bird’s long-term vision is “to operate in Greater Paris in order to connect the outskirts to the heart of Paris “, he explains to us. “There is a real subject of opening up the periphery, with a typology of routes not yet covered“, continues the person concerned.
“The idea is to massively cover the doors of the capital and the peripheral edges in the morning, a niche popular with users. They need to be reassured to go to work, to have a guarantee that transport does not always bring“, notes Mickael Mamou. Except that in the short term, this strategy turns out to be more complicated than it seems.
A contrarian strategy
“For the moment, this is not yet possible, because one needs an authorization from each city to operate. It’s painstaking work to convince all the surrounding towns. It is also necessary to define the quantitative masses of users in each zone of the periphery, the first ring, the second ring“.
For Bird,deploying 3000 bicycles in Paris would not helpto validate their hypotheses that self-service VAEs can provide a real mobility solution for suburban residents wishing to travel to Paris. “I don’t believe in this strategy“, assures Mickaël Mamou.
“Today, we want to learn and understand with our fleet of 600 bikes. It will take time, but quantitatively we are talking about several hundred thousand people.potentially prone to using a service like Bird. “We need to measure the needs of people who come to work in Paris“, he adds.
To precisely learn, understand and analyze the market, Bird will use the same strategy as in Marseille through a public consultation with several thousand city dwellers. A form submitted physically and online will provide initial clarifications on expectations, blockages and types of customers.
Learning from the Paris market
Depending on the responses, the strategy is then likely to evolve by redefining, for example, the areas where the fleet of electric bicycles is deployed, in order to maximize the chances of profitability. And Bird is not expecting a miracle right away:We will not be profitable in the first 6 months, we know that“, warns the boss.
“But over 12 months, if our assumptions are proven, we will have found something. And if it is still not profitable, we will wonder what we still have to learn from Paris. All the lessons we can learn in Paris, we can apply to other cities“, explains our interlocutor. “So yes, we will stay in Paris all the same and we will define the amount that we can invest to test new hypotheses“.
Bird does not consider Paris as a laboratory city, but simply seeks to find its place in a saturated market where it is difficult to break through. Especially since the electric bike put into service does not stand out from the crowd at all: it is exactly the same model as Dott, supplied by the Chinese Okaï.
Front basket, 34 kilos, solid tires to avoid punctures, automated diagnostics, geolocation system, GPS: on paper, nothing changes. In terms of prices, Bird has also aligned itself with the competition with an unlocking billed at 1 euro and a minute of use costing the sum of 21 cents. Lime and Dott charge the same rates.
What about the competition?
It is perhaps on the subscriptions that it is necessary to lean to better oppose the offers of each one. Here are the Bird packages:
- Monthly plan with free and unlimited unlocks at 5.99 euros (the pricing of 21 cents applies thereafter);
- Day pass with unlimited journeys and unlocking fees offered at 8.90 euros;
- Quarterly plan with free and unlimited unlocks at 9.99 euros;
- Monthly plan with unlimited trips and unlocking fees offered at 34.99 euros.
Opposite, Lime offers different offers:
- 1 hour package with free unlocking fees and unlimited journeys at 10.99 euros;
- Day pass with free unlocking fees and unlimited journeys (45 minutes maximum) at 12.99 euros;
- 3-day package with free unlocking fees and unlimited journeys (45 minutes maximum) at 28.99 euros;
- “Minutes” package with free unlocking costs and 300 minutes of travel time over 30 days at 39.99 euros.
Thus, Bird seems more advantageous on certain proposals, in particular the daily package. The two operators also opt for slightly different strategies, particularly in terms of the periods offered. This will have the merit of filling as many people as possible.
How does Bird organize itself to manage the maintenance and recharging of its machines? In 2019, the company decided to internalize as many operations as possible so as to no longer call on freelance workers. Warehouse, trucks, drivers, mechanics: many recruitments have been made to achieve a certain independence.
Find the right balance
Today, Bird juggles between the two systems to develop a strategycustom madefor each city. “We have put in place real fundamental social values, particularly in terms of mechanics. Our mechanics are on permanent contracts“says Mickaël Mamou. On the charging side, the strategy differs slightly.
The group uses a total of 8 partners governed by a common charter, but not remunerated according to the number of recharges made. This ecosystem of partners is associated with Bird’s interests and earns revenue based on the journeys made by users.
In Paris, American society does not approach the matter in the same way. With little visibility on its success and profitability, Bird does not want to take risks and therefore outsources the load and the mechanics. If its Parisian presence continues, the internalization of certain resources should then take place.
Bird’s ambitions will push him to invite himself to several other towns in the country. “In France we think that there are between 80 and 100 cities to develop our types of services that are relevant“. Paris remains in its sights on the electric scooter market, given the new call for tenders planned for 2023.
“In September 2020, we left Paris with a heavy heart. It is an immense pride for us to return therer (in the electric bike niche)”, welcomes the CEO of Bird France. The pride will be all the greater if Bird manages to do a double blow with electric scooters. Like a taste of little revenge hanging in the air.
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