Lime’s CEO on the future of scooters: ‘COVID has turned from a headwind into a tailwind’

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Like most shared scooter companies, Lime was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We saw a 95 percent drop in ridership,” Lime CEO Wayne Ting says in an interview. “We’re a mobility company. And one of the things with mobility companies, when communities shut down, riders shut down.”
But while the world still remains in the grip of COVID-19, Lime’s scooter business has begun to rebound. In May, the company made a crucial investment deal with Uber and others for $170 million to take over the ride-hailing company’s bike and scooter business Jump. That deal also saw Ting, then Lime’s global operations head (and former chief of staff to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi), replace Brad Bao as CEO.
Now, Ting says that Lime’s riders are coming…

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