Mobike Launches in Tirana, Albania

(Source: Mobike)

Mobike is officially launching in Albania!

Operations began on July 8th in the nation’s capital, Tirana. Tirana, sister city of the already Mobike city Florence, welcomed the classic silver and orange bicycles to their first home in the Balkans.

The launch is the result of a sustained collaboration between Mobike, the Municipality of Tirana led by Mayor Erion Veliaj, and other local stakeholders. Mobike’s sustainable and affordable solution will be Tirana’s very first smart and dockless bike share scheme, and is designed to benefit users, local business and communities, as well as the city itself.

Mayor Veliaj leads a group of riders along a cycle path

The Mobike team held an official launching event in the heart of the capital at “Skanderbeg’s Square” on July 8th, with the Mayor Veliaj making a public announcement opening the service to the people of Tirana. Representatives of the embassies of Italy and China also gave remarks at the event. Then, Albania’s first 25 Mobikers led a public introduction to the service, helping other citizens of Tirana sign up and embark on a group bike ride around the square and out into the city.

The launch follows closely on the Municipality of Tirana and Mobike signing an agreement last week in support of the municipality’s ambitious plan to grow the number of bikes and reduce the use of cars in the city.

"As Tirana always brings innovation, with the arrival of Mobike we become the first city in the Balkans to introduce the dockless bikeshare service. This is our moment to transform Tirana with a cell phone and a bike," said Mayor Veliaj.

Mobike was founded in Beijing in January 2015, and officially launched its service in Shanghai on April 22, 2016. Since expanding to over 200 cities around the world, serving over 200 million users with a fleet of more than 9 million smart Mobikes worldwide.