Uber is known as a pioneer in the ride-sharing industry, and it’s looking to grow its market share by acquiring a scooter-share startup like Lime or Bird.
Lime and Bird are the two most popular scooter-sharing companies in the U.S. They work by letting users rent and find scooters through a mobile app so people can pick up and drop off the scooters anywhere.
Uber is already holding serious talks with Bird, the larger of the two scooter-shares, but it is working with Lime as well in case the Bird deal falls through, claims a report from The Information.
Uber already owns a stake in Lime which means that some users can order scooters from that company inside of the Uber app in the U.S., according to The Verge.
Lime is already testing out its scooter-share model in Canada in a small in Waterloo Ontario.
No matter what company Uber makes a deal with, if any, then it might mean that scooter-shares might start popping up north of the border since Uber already has an established presence in Canada. Although, it will be up to cities to allow the scooters to operate within them.
The Information talked to Bird CEO Travis VanderZanden, and he said the “Bird is not for sale.” So it will be interesting to see if Uber can make a deal happen with the startup.
