It Seems Such A Good Idea,

with so many bicycle sharing companies around,

why not make an umbrella sharing company? well that is what Zhao Shuping, a businessman from Shenzen, decided to do, he founded the Sharing E Umbrella, an umbrella sharing service, in April, by the end of June, his business had already launched in 11 major Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou, but while picking up the umbrellas was relatively simple, as they were made available at bus and subway stations, the return policy turned out to be a different matter entirely, “Umbrellas are different from bicycles,” Mr. Zhao told Chinese news site ThePaper.cn. “Bikes can be parked anywhere, but with an umbrella you need railings or a fence to hang it on.” Sharing E Umbrella has reportedly lost track of most of the 300,000 umbrellas it had in circulation, considering that borrowing umbrellas requires a 19 yuan deposit, with a fee of 0.50 yuan per half an hour usage, and Zhao estimates that he loses 60 yuan per lost umbrella, the company is now in the red, but the Chinese entrepreneur is not ready to call it quits just yet, Zhao claims that despite the unforeseen setback, Sharing E Umbrella still plans to roll out 30 million nationwide by the end of the year, 

going back to bicycle sharing even some of those have failed, in the City of Seattle in March it announced that it will shut down the Pronto bike-share service, 

and one company in China has failed as well, in only 6 months, Wukong lost 90% of its bikes (presumed either missing or stolen), according to Caixin, by the time that founder Lou Houyi decided that GPS devices were necessary, the company had run out of money, becoming the first casualty of China's shared bike boom, I wonder how bike share companies are doing in other cities and is it practical to put GPS on an umbrella? in London it appears the bicycle sharing scheme is a success, and if this article is anything to go by they are doing well in other cities, but I am still not sure if the umbrellas will ever not be taken home.