[jjeaff]

So what is the VC angle with these super high valuation scooter startups? It doesn't seem very defensible. The barrier to entry isn't very high. And it doesn't seem that customer loyalty would be much of a factor.

The most obvious strategy I see is that the VCs think they can pump these companies then dump them on the open markets and cash out before thousands of global, regional, and local competitors flood in and make their non defensible positions obvious.

[xkcd-sucks]

Electric scooters are a fruiting body of the electric car industry (brushless hub motors, batteries etc wouldn't have gotten so developed just for scooters)

Maybe the scooter rentals are propping up another of the vc's concerns?

[taneq]

All of it came out of mobile phones and r/c hobby gear IMO.

[arkitaip]

Pump and dump. Once the IPO is over and they had their ROI they don't care about what happens to investors or the company.