Opportunity for local shared mobility solutions as Bird and Micromobility.com struggle to turn a profit
May 30, 2023
min. read
Shared mobility companies Bird and Micromobility.com (formerly Helbiz) stormed onto the scene by introducing innovative and convenient transportation solutions, capturing the attention of urban dwellers worldwide.
However, as the micromobility industry enters a more mature phase, companies like Bird and Micromobility.com continue to grapple with obstacles when it comes to attaining financial stability. This has prompted them to reassess their excessively ambitious expansion strategies.
What factors contribute to these challenges, and what implications does this hold for the industry as a whole? Could local micromobility ventures provide a superior solution to meet the increasing demand for these services? Let's delve further into the financial predicament of Bird and Micromobility.com to gain a better understanding.
Bird: downsizing and struggles in the stock market
Established in 2017, Bird is a micromobility company that provides electric transportation solutions in the USA and Europe. Their range of shared vehicles includes e-scooters and e-bikes. The company also sells vehicles to distributors, retailers, and direct customers. With its headquarters located in Miami, Florida, Bird currently employs 425 individuals and operates in 105 cities.
Recently, Bird's first-quarter 2023 financials revealed challenges in maintaining ridership and revenue. Despite implementing cost-cutting measures, the company's performance failed to convince investors of its ability to achieve profitability – the company's stock plummeted nearly 19% after announcing its first-quarter earnings.
In 2022, Bird faced a challenging year. The company announced plans to completely exit Germany, Sweden, and Norway, as well as wind down operations in numerous other markets, primarily small to mid-sized, across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. They also reduced their staff by 23%.
Despite a positive revenue increase of 12.06% in 2022, the company faced substantial losses totaling $358.74 million, marking a significant 66.9% increase compared to 2021. The challenges continued in 2023 as Bird witnessed a decline in rides and deployed vehicles. With a net loss of $44.3 million recorded at the end of Q1 2023, it’s likely that the company will continue to downsize its operations.
Micromobility.com: similar woes despite the acquisition of Wheels and rebranding
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York, Micromobility.com delivers micromobility services in Italy, the United States, and Singapore (43 cities in total), which include e-scooters, e-bicycles, and e-mopeds. It also operates Helbiz Kitchen, a delivery-only ghost kitchen restaurant, and the Helbiz Live streaming platform. The company currently employs 284 people.
In 2023, the company, formerly known as Helbiz, underwent a rebranding and transformed into Micromobility.com Inc. This rebranding coincided with the plans to launch retail stores across the United States.
In 2022, Micromobility.com successfully completed its acquisition of Wheels, a shared micromobility operator, along with promises to its investors that the merger would lead to a doubling of annual revenue and facilitate the path to profitability. The company set its sights on capitalizing on Wheels' extensive user base of 5 million riders and venturing into untapped markets.
Despite these hopes, Micromobility.com experienced less than stellar financial results in 2022. The company achieved a revenue of $15.54 million, indicating a 21.07% growth compared to the previous year's $12.83 million. However, the company also incurred losses amounting to -$82.07 million, reflecting a 13.3% increase compared to 2021.
In 2023, Micromobility.com announced a reverse stock split to meet Nasdaq Capital Market's minimum bid price requirement and make their common stock more attractive to investors. This move didn't come as a surprise, considering that the company received a delisting warning from Nasdaq in 2022. Coupled with its enduring track record of operating losses and negative cash flows over time, the overall outlook of the company's financial performance is rather discouraging.
Why are Bird and Micromobility.com facing financial difficulties and exiting markets?
The difficulties faced by Bird and Micromobility.com can be partly explained by their venture capital-backed business model. They witnessed swift expansion while hemorrhaging substantial amounts of money. And the more they expanded, the more money they bled. Now, it’s unsurprising to witness their heavily subsidized business models shifting their priorities from aggressive growth to mitigating losses and striving for profitability.
In recent years, there has been a surge in the popularity of shared mobility special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC). These companies are created solely for the purpose of raising capital through an initial public offering and have no commercial operations of their own. The ultimate goal of a SPAC is to acquire or merge with an existing company.
Financial struggles have become a common theme among shared mobility SPACs This can be attributed to the rush of companies going public without first establishing a sustainable business model – and Bird and Micromobility.com are no exception to this trend. The challenges faced by these companies emphasize the significance of building a strong and viable foundation prior to entering the public market.
The relentless pursuit of expansion has proven to be an ineffective strategy. For instance, some experts suggest that Bird's decision to outsource its operations to franchises made it harder to persuade cities and secure contracts. Their emphasis on breadth rather than depth resulted in a lack of understanding regarding local communities and the nuances of local legislation. As a result, major players like Bird and Micromobility.com have been withdrawing their fleets from “less profitable” cities.
The soaring shared micromobility market: a golden opportunity for local entrepreneurs
According to a McKinsey study, the shared micromobility market has the potential to reach a staggering $50 billion to $90 billion by 2030, with an estimated annual growth rate of approximately 40% between 2019 and 2030. By 2030, shared micromobility could constitute around 10% of the overall shared mobility market.
In this context, the recent financial challenges faced by Bird and Micromobility.com should not be seen as indicative of a bleak future for the entire industry. Instead, these setbacks highlight the inherent unsustainability of aggressive and expansive business models within the shared micromobility landscape.
Local operators with smaller ground teams enjoy a notable edge over companies like Bird and Micromobility.com. By focusing on underserved markets and having an intimate understanding of their communities, these operators can deliver superior service while maintaining lower costs and stable profit margins.
Returning to Bird's Q1 2023 financial report, they also reported 0.9 rides per deployed vehicle per day. Now, let's compare this figure to other operators. We conducted a survey involving two EU-based operators that make use of Atom Mobility:
- Operator 1: With a fleet of 4,000+ vehicles across over 10 cities, they recorded an average ride per vehicle of 0.9 in Q1 2023
- Operator 2: Operating in a single city with a fleet of 200 vehicles, they achieved an average ride per vehicle of 2.7 in Q1 2023
As fleet sizes increase, the average ride per vehicle tends to decrease, as seen with Operator 1 and Bird. However, the figure from Operator 2 highlights the potential for local operators to thrive in underserved cities that larger shared mobility companies may neglect.
We have seen examples of this – Go Green City, a Swiss electric moped-sharing company, presently provides its services in Zurich and Basel. Their small, tightly-knit team prioritizes local knowledge, enabling them to operate with enhanced flexibility and agility – a level of service that larger companies like Bird or Micromobility.com will find challenging to match. Overall, more than 100 projects have successfully launched their shared mobility ventures with Atom Mobility's assistance, operating in over 140 cities across the globe.
As the desire for shared micromobility services grows – with a focus on community safety and the ethical integration of these modes of transportation into the overall urban transit system – it seems that local operators have a distinct edge over large multinationals.
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Bid your price: ATOM Mobility launches rider-controlled pricing feature
💸 ATOM Mobility launches “Offer your price” - a rider-controlled pricing feature. Riders can suggest higher or lower fares within pre-set limits. Boosts demand & helps stand out in competitive ride-hail markets 🚖🌍
August 4, 2025
min. read
The ride-hailing market is always changing. From Latin America to Eastern Europe, platforms like inDrive have popularized a new norm: letting riders suggest what they want to pay. Now, in response to this growing global trend, ATOM Mobility is proud to introduce: Offer your price – a fully configurable pricing feature built right into your rider app.
💡How It works
Available on all ride-hail projects, this feature lets riders propose a price – higher or lower than the default fare – within operator-set limits. Drivers can then accept or decline based on the offer.
Here’s how it reshapes the experience:
In the Rider app:
- A new "Offer your price" button appears when selecting a vehicle class.
- Riders can slide or tap “+/-” buttons to adjust price:
- e.g. +30% to get a faster ride 🟢
- or -10% to save on a flexible trip 🔵
- For scheduled rides, this feature is disabled to keep things predictable.
Smart logic behind the slider:
Your admin dashboard defines the limits – say, up to +500% from regular price and down to -30% – and the app calculates step sizes automatically:
- +500% limit → 1 step = 5%
- +100% limit → 1 step = 1%
- +200% limit → 1 step = 2%
Slider position adapts dynamically, depending on your defined range. And yes – the button color and style can be customized to match your brand 🎨.
On the operator dashboard:
You’ll find complete control and clarity:
- Enable/disable the feature per vehicle class
- Set custom % limits for price increase/decrease
- Price card, exports and ride activity logs are all updated with the adjusted ride price
- New ride status - Ride requested (adjusted ride price) for transparency in reporting
What drivers see:
In the driver app:
- Price offers are marked clearly (e.g. 🔻 "Discount requested" or 🔺 "Extra fee offered");
- Final earnings are adjusted accordingly and logged in driver stats.
Who's already doing this – and winning?
Real-world companies are already proving that rider-defined pricing works:
🚘 inDrive (LATAM, Africa, Asia)
Now one of the top global ride-hailing players outside the U.S. (over 200M downloads, active in 700+ cities across 45+ countries), inDrive built its brand around rider-negotiated pricing. It helps them stand out in price-sensitive markets and win over both drivers and passengers with more transparent pricing dynamics.
🚖 Comin (France)
A local success story, Comin has embraced flexible rider pricing to gain traction in several French cities (onboarded 6,000+ drivers). The feature gives them an edge against larger platforms, offering more freedom for users and better utilization for drivers.
These examples show that letting riders bid their price isn’t just a gimmick – it’s a growth strategy.
From our previosu blog “How to Find Your Niche in the Ride-Hail Market”, we saw how localisation and user control drive loyalty and conversion.
This new pricing flexibility supports:
- Emerging markets with income-sensitive riders
- Driver shortages, where riders can tip in real-time
- Brand positioning, letting you stand apart from competition
🚀 Ready to lead the market?
This is just one of the 300+ features available in ATOM’s white-label ride-hailing platform.
Let’s talk about how to launch or upgrade your app with “Offer your price”, advanced pricing logic, and more tools to dominate your niche.
👉 Contact our team and explore how to become the market leader: www.atommobility.com
Blog
Is car sharing profitable in 2025?
🚗💡 Is car sharing still a profitable business in 2025? Short answer – yes, if done right. From rising fleet costs to smarter user behavior and green transport trends, the shared mobility game is changing fast. Learn what makes a car sharing business work today – and why some succeed while others shut down. 👉 Real stories, data-backed tips, and practical advice for operators and mobility founders.
July 23, 2025
min. read
In 2024, the global car-sharing market was valued at approximately €8.9 billion, with Europe accounting for over 50.2% of that total. Analysts forecast it will grow at a CAGR of 11.8% between 2025 and 2033, reaching roughly €24.4 billion by 2033. This blend of urbanization, environmental regulation and a growing preference for flexible mobility continues to create fertile ground for operators - yet not every service finds a clear path to profitability.
Success hinges on your location, business model, fleet, operations and local market dynamics. There are strong success stories, but also many high-profile failures. Here’s a closer look at what really affects profitability in today’s car-sharing market - and what you can learn from real-world cases.
What makes a car-sharing business profitable?
Profitability in car sharing boils down to securing enough paid usage while keeping costs under control. Every unused hour or unnecessary expense erodes margins.
Key factors:
- Fleet utilization – the most important metric. Cars need to be in use several hours each day to cover fixed costs.
- Operational efficiency – cleaning, charging, relocation, maintenance and insurance add up quickly.
- Fleet acquisition – leasing usually optimizes cash flow and scalability, but still carries fixed monthly expenses.
- Pricing and competition – too low cuts margins; too high drives away users. Finding the right balance is essential.
- Tech stack – a robust platform automates operations, improves customer experience and reduces support costs.
The operators who win are those who combine solid daily usage with lean operations.
❌ PANEK S.A. suspends its car-sharing service to focus on rental
29 March 2025 marked the end of Panek’s car-sharing experiment. Despite peaking at 2 700–3 000 vehicles, Panek never turned a profit in over seven years.
About Panek
- Launch: Car sharing added in 2017 by Maciej Panek, entirely internally funded (no VC)
- Fleet mix: City cars, hybrids, EVs, cargo vans and vintage models
- 2023 acquisition: Regional Rent (+ 45% fleet), making Panek Poland’s largest integrated rental/operator
2024 performance
- Revenue split: Car sharing ≈ 20 % of total. Traditional rental 80 %
- Utilization: 0.7–1.0 rides/car/day
- Maintenance & overhead: Up to €690/car-month
- Profitability: Negative since inception
Why it failed
- Under-utilization: < 1 ride/day vs. ~ 2-4 rides/day needed to cover fixed costs
- Price wars: Fierce competition in Warsaw eroded margins and drove up customer-acquisition costs
- High OPEX: Parking, maintenance, insurance and vandalism pushed costs > €690 per car each month
- Tech drag: Two-year outsourced app development cycle meant poor UX and slow feature delivery
- No public support: Missed out on parking incentives or EV subsidies
Faced with persistent losses, Panek’s leadership refocused on profitable core segments: daily/weekly rentals, corporate leasing and Fleet-as-a-Service.
🚗 WiBLE Spain finds its profitable lane in Madrid
WiBLE (50/50 joint venture between Kia Europe and Repsol) launched in 2018 and has just closed its second consecutive year with positive EBITDA.
- Fleet: 600+ plug-in hybrids (Kia Niro, XCeed, Ceed Tourer)
- 2024 revenue: €6.93 million (+ 5% vs. 2023)
- Usage: ~1 500 trips/day ⇒ 2.5 rides/car/day
- Diversification: Monthly rentals (€599+) now 5% of revenue
- Market share: ~19% of Madrid’s car-sharing market
Key enablers:
- Higher utilization – rides up 15% YoY, driving a 10% lift in core revenue
- Fleet scale efficiencies – added 150 vehicles in 2 years, lowering per-unit costs
- Service diversification – multi-day and monthly rental options opened new revenue streams
After five years of absorbing fixed-cost drag and depreciation, WiBLE now leverages Madrid’s regulatory environment (low-emission zones, parking benefits) and delivers lean, tech-driven operations.
🚗 SOCAR South Korea: scale + longer rentals
SOCAR (backed by SoftBank, SK Inc. and Lotte Group) operates 20 000 vehicles, generates nearly €300 million in annual turnover and has 20% of South Koreans signed up.
- Model: Station-based, pay-per-minute with average rental duration of a whoping 12 hrs
- Segmentation trick: Aging cars shift from on-demand sharing to long-term monthly rentals (10% of revenue), extending resale life with minimal depreciation impact
By pairing massive scale with savvy car lifecycle management, extra-long rental duration, SOCAR converts high utilization into robust profitability.
🚗 Carguru (Latvia)
30 August 2024: Carguru (est. 2017) acquired EV-focused OX Drive (est. 2021), adding 200+ Tesla to the fleet.
- Growth: From just 30 cars and total budget below 500 000 EUR (2017) to over 1 000 cars (mid-2025) via leasing and strategic partnerships
- 2023 turnover: €4 million; 435 000 trips (+35.9 %); 7 million km driven; profit €375 600
Outcome: A combined ICE, hybrid and EV fleet—backed by local expertise and strategic acquisitions - has driven strong growth and high utilization.
🎯 Core suggestions for aspiring operators
- Target 2–4 rides/day per vehicle
- Leverage dynamic/off-peak pricing, B2B partnerships (hotels, offices) and event tie-ins.
- Contain OPEX via automation
- Use predictive maintenance, remote diagnostics and gig-economy cleaning/relocation.
- Secure municipal support early
- Negotiate parking incentives, EV charging access and low-emission zone permits.
- Choose your tech wisely
- Build an in-house development team for full control with higher costs, or adopt a proven white-label platform for speed to market, stability and lower costs.
- Validate unit economics before scaling
- Prove break-even utilization in one zone before expanding to others.
With clear benchmarks and smart execution - drawing on lessons from Panek, WiBLE, SOCAR and Carguru - car sharing can still be a highly profitable component of a modern mobility portfolio.
If you’re planning to start or improve your service, ATOM Mobility is ready to help. We’ve built the platform and supported dozens of teams worldwide - reach out, and we’ll share what we’ve learned.
Image credit: https://kursors.lv/2018/03/13/carguru-palielina-autoparku-un-paplasina-darbibas-zonas-mikrorajonos
Driver App demo credentials - Email: test@atom.com, Password: driver
