You forgot the $10m advertising campaign to get folks to install the app and register.

That’s the other beauty of the business, the scooters sitting everywhere ARE the ad campaign.

This. Was in Venice beach this past May and the Birds were everywhere, to the point where we almost felt compelled to give them a try, even though we had no need. Both wife and myself signed up and spent 30 minutes riding to Santa Monica. Great advertisement, cool factor and high word of mouth marketing.

Have they done any advertising? I saw a dozen people riding them before asking someone, never seen an ad for them.

They don't exist in my city, yet I've heard about them. Maybe a PR team?

Is $3/ride really that low ?

On my personal ebike, i do 2-4 rides a day and it has almost entirely replaced my car.

So really, anyone in SF or NY who spends $50/month will surely consider getting his own?

3$ and even 2$ seems in fact un-sustain-ably high for mass market adoption (I live in a small European country. Salaries about 2/3 of US).

I tried out the Bird scooters, liked them, and then bought my own. I use it to speed up the Caltrain commute from San Mateo to FiDi in San Francisco. The trip is: 0.6 mile scoot to Caltrain -> 2.0 mile scoot to FiDi -> 2.0 mile scoot to Caltrain -> 0.6 mile scoot home. If I were to use Bird, and Bird were available in San Mateo, it would cost about $12 a day for Bird, plus I would have to fire up the app and hunt down a scooter four times a day. The scooter cost $300, folds up in seconds, is easy to take on the Caltrain, and takes up very little space at home or at work.

What scooter did you buy? Where? (I've tried briefly to find the model Bird uses but couldn't)

I got the Ninebot/Segway ES1. Frys had them on sale for $300 about a month ago. Bird uses the Xiaomi/Ninebot m365, which is similar in many ways. The Xiaomi is faster, but if you want the faster speed, you can get the ES2, which Bird is also starting to use. The fold on the ES1/ES2 is superior -- it's simpler and faster, and the scooter folds up smaller, so it's more practical to put on the luggage rack on the train. It's a single lever and literally 3 seconds to fold or unfold. The ES1/ES2 also has an optional second battery pack which doubles the range and increases the speed. The ES2 has rear suspension, is 3 mph faster, and has rear and underside lighting. The extra speed and lights are nice, but the rear suspension adds weight and people say it rattles.

Overall, it's a really well designed product. I'm pretty concerned about the durability though. I've ridden it about 100 miles, and so far so good, but there have been several small issues with rubber coming unglued, it's starting to creak a bit, the caps on the handlebars pop out. The advertised range is also wildly overstated. It's rated at 15 miles but I had mine run out of juice at about 8.5 miles.

My hope is that the big rental companies will push Ninebot to make durability improvements, and the next version will last longer. Based on my experience so far, and what I've read online, I'm expecting maybe a 3-400 mile lifetime for this one.

If you get one, do your best not to go over any significant bumps at speed. The wheels are small, the tires are solid rubber, and the suspension has very little travel. The motor is in the front wheel. If you bottom out the suspension, the motor is going to take the hit, and it's small, high performance, and built to a low price point in China.

This is the one bird uses: https://www.amazon.com/Xiaomi-Electric-Long-range-Fold-n-Car...

Looks almost as big as a foldable bike

At some income level, there isn’t any difference between 1 penny and $3. It’s like getting a coffee, people can spend a lot of money on them thoughtlessly. And many people wouldn’t want to own their own scooter. I would rather not have to carry it or store it anywhere. Ride it to a store and just ditch it. If it breaks just get off and find another one.