The Bay Area company whose electric scooters can be rented in San Jose and Oakland is shrinking its footprint world-wide, it announced.
The move by San Francisco’s Lime will mean layoffs for about 100 workers, Axios reported.
In announcing it would shut operations in 12 markets, Lime, founded in January 2017, said it had shifted its main focus to making a profit. “While the vast majority of our 120+ markets have adopted micromobility transportation solutions quickly and are profitable, there are select communities throughout the world where micromobility has evolved more slowly,” Lime said in a blog post Thursday.
Neither of the company’s Bay Area markets are on the chopping block, nor is South Lake Tahoe, according to the post. Slated for shutdown are operations in San Diego, Atlanta, Phoenix, and San Antonio, Texas; plus Linz, Austria; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Bogotá, Columbia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay; Lima, Peru; and Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil.
Lime competitors Bird, Scoot, Lyft and Skip have all laid off workers or quit markets over the past year, Axios reported Thursday.
“After two years of explosive growth, scooter companies have entered a new phase — survival of the fittest in a capital-intensive, money-losing industry,” according to Axios. “The companies have generated headlines for huge losses as they attempt to manage vehicle attrition, labor costs, and regulatory battles.”
Lime president Joe Kraus, citing improvements that he said extended the lifetime of Lime scooters to 14 months from six months, said he was “very confident” Lime would turn a profit this year.
