The sharing economy is real. It’s what allows us to drive our own cars part time with Uber and earn money on the side or rent out that room we don’t use in an apartment using Airbnb. There are countless other examples of startups focused on the sharing economy. E Umbrella is an umbrella-sharing startup based in China and it’s facing a problem. It can’t stop its users from stealing the umbrellas.
It hasn’t even been three months since the startup was launched with an investment of around $1.5 million. The startup offered nearly 300,000 umbrellas for rent across 11 cities in the country.
Users had to pay 19 yuan or $2.90 per umbrella as the deposit and half yuan or $0.07 per 30 minutes of rental time. The umbrella stands were located at strategic points near train and bus stations in those 11 cities. Once users made the payment using the app, they received a code that would unlock an umbrella.
Since users don’t seem to have to pay a fee for an unreturned umbrella, most users just end up keeping the one they rented, while the company’s inventory continues to decline.
It’s having a problem getting people to return the umbrellas once they’re done. E Umbrella founder Zhao Shuping told South China Morning Post that the startup has lost almost all of its 300,000 umbrellas in just three months.
He’s not giving up, though. An umbrella costs the company 60 yuan or $8.82 to replace and even though they’ve lost quite a bit of them, E Umbrella is looking to add 30 million across various cities in China by the end of this year.
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