Asia’s shared-bike sector faces growth headwinds

亚洲共享单车行业正在经历明显收缩，规模较小的平台已被挤出局，一些最大的平台也放缓了在海外快速扩张的步伐。Asia’s shared bicycle sector is undergoing a pronounced contraction that has edged out（句型） smaller players and slowed down rapid overseas expansion by some of its biggest platforms.
ADJ Something that is pronounced is very noticeable.
获阿里巴巴(Alibaba)投资的初创公司ofo本月宣布，将在两个月时间内结束在印度开展了6个月的业务，同时退出在澳大利亚入驻的两个城市悉尼和阿德莱德。This month, Alibaba-backed start-up ofo announced it would close its six-month-old operations in India, as well as in its two Australian sites, Sydney and Adelaide, within two months.
另外，据中国财新传媒(Caixin)的杂志报道，由于资金紧张，ofo计划将中国以外的亚洲业务“瘦身”，把重点放在日本、韩国、新加坡和香港四个地区。The news comes as the company plans to scale back（句型）its operations in four regions — Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong — because of a cash crunch, according to Chinese business magazine Caixin.
N-COUNT A situation in which a business or economy has very little money can be referred to as a crunch. 【or】N-SING You can refer to an important time or event, for example, when an important decision has to be made, as the crunch. 【or】V-T To crunch numbers means to do a lot of calculations using a calculator or computer.

这一次撤退标志着ofo的扩张计划出现了突然逆转，它最初的计划是到2017年底在20个国家投放2000万辆单车。“眼下我们把重心放在我们的重点市场以及实现盈利上，”ofo在一项声明中表示，“我们正在就我们的计划与当地市场进行沟通。”The retreat is an abrupt reversal from its initial plans to place 20m bikes in 20 countries by the end of 2017. “Our focus now is on our priority markets and moving towards（句型，实现未必总是achieve） profitability,” ofo said in a company statement. “We are communicating with our local markets about our plans.”
据研究公司IDC表示，过去两年中，亚太地区共享单车行业享受了大量投资涌入带来的好处，使得大约60个平台扩大了旗下单车数量并争相为用户提供更大力度的补贴。中国最大的两个共享单车平台摩拜单车(Mobike)和ofo仅在2017年就筹集了将近20亿美元的资金。Over the past two years, the Asia-Pacific sharing bike sector has enjoyed an influx of investment, allowing as many as 60 platforms to build up bike fleets（句型） and subsidise rides in an effort to outbid competitors, according to research firm IDC. Mobike and ofo, China’s largest platforms, raised nearly $2bn in 2017 alone.
N-COUNT An influx of people or things into a place is their arrival there in large numbers
V-T If you outbid someone, you offer more money than they do for something that you both want to buy.
共享单车的急剧扩张在中国最为明显——在中国共享单车的鼎盛期，一排排五颜六色的单车严重挤占了人行道有限的空间。然而，近几个月来，由于竞争激烈和单车失窃情况严重，规模较小的初创企业很快被耗尽财力，众多平台倒闭，这导致街头共享单车的数量大大减少。The explosion in shared bikes has been most apparent in China, where at their zenith, rows of colourful machines jostled for limited footpath space. However, their ranks have been trimmed in recent months by a number of closures, as smaller start-ups find their financial resources quickly drained by heated competition and bike thefts.
N-SING The zenith of something is the time when it is most successful or powerful.
N-PLURAL The ranks of a group or organization are the people who belong to it. V-T If a government or other organization trims something such as a plan, policy, or amount, they reduce it slightly in extent or size.
上海中欧国际工商学院(CEIBS)助理教授林宸称，“他们的目的是追求增长，为投资者呈现他们想要的增长故事，但我们很快就发现了他们海外扩张上的问题。”“Their purpose was to chase after growth and give their investors the growth story they wanted, but we quickly saw problems in their overseas expansion,” said Chen Lin, assistant professor at the China-Europe International Business School in Shanghai.
据Quartz报道，据称ofo也正在北美裁员。该报道称，员工们被告知ofo在美国和加拿大正“进入休眠模式”。Ofo is also reportedly laying off employees in North America, according to a Quartz report. Employees were told ofo was “going into sleep mode” in the US and Canada, the report said.
7月早些时候，香港初创公司GoBee破产，原因是亏损。该公司进入欧洲4个月就有60%的单车受损或失窃，欧洲扩张因此宣告失败。曾经拥有2000万用户的中国初创公司小蓝单车(Bluegogo)去年11月成为最早倒闭的大型平台之一。Earlier this July, Hong Kong-based start-up GoBee wentbust, citing financial losses. A European expansion flopped after 60 per cent of its bike fleet was damaged or stolen within the first four months of the service’s launch. Chinese start-up Bluegogo, which once had 20m riders, was one of the first major platforms to go belly-up（词汇） last November.
PHRASE If a company goes bust, it loses so much money that it is forced to close down.
V-I If something flops, it is completely unsuccessful.
幸存的平台通过寻求中国科技巨头的支持来维持运营。4月，ofo的主要竞争对手摩拜被餐饮服务巨头美团点评(Meituan Dianping)以37亿美元的总价（包括债务）全资收购。利用所得的部分资金，摩拜向用户退还了1.5亿美元押金，以求在竞争中取得优势。Surviving platforms have persisted by seeking backing from China’s biggest tech giants. In April, ofo’s main competitor, Mobike, wasfully acquired（词汇） by food services giant Meituan Dianping in a $3.7bn deal including debt. Using some of the funds raised, Mobike then waived $150m in user deposits on its bikes in an effort to gain an edge over（句型） its competitors.
摩拜表示，其目标是使“免押金”成为共享单车行业的标准。此举实际上将提高竞争对手的运营成本，从而把其他参与者挤出市场。Mobike says it aims to make zero deposits a standard in the bike-sharing industry — a move that would effectively raise the cost of competitors' operations, thus edging other players out.
共享单车的盛衰周期与中国叫车服务巨头滴滴(Didi)和美国优步(Uber)之间的烧钱大战如出一辙，后两者通过向用户提供补贴来争夺市场份额。The boom and bust cycle shares parallels with（句型）the spending war between Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi and Uber, which battled for market share by offering subsidised rides to users.
N-COUNT If something has a parallel, it is similar to something else, but exists or happens in a different place or at a different time. If it has no parallel or is without parallel, it is not similar to anything else.
“当然，（共享单车公司）太过依赖于外部投资和用户补贴手段，”林宸表示，“他们从来没有一个可持续的商业模式，而是盲目扩张。”“Of course [sharing bike companies] rely too much on external investment and user subsidies,” said Ms Chen. “They never had a sustainable business model and blindly expanded.”