There aren't any network effects a la Uber and Lyft because the scooter doesn't come to you, you go to it. And the scooters do not go fast/long enough to stitch different catchement areas together.

Every sign points to commodification here. The way car and bike rentals are commodified.

The economics leaks in many places:

1) people buy their own scooters

2) with rising scooter usage, scooters get way cheaper (see 1)

3) multiple competitors bid down rental prices

4) people figure theft/secondary part market out

5) a scooter inventory uniting meta app (a la Kayak) takes all the margin

6) turns out teenagers were only bird hunting as a novelty, gotta pay expensive 25 year olds to do it

So many issues. It's easier to see a world where electric scooters are neat novelties for tourists sometimes (as long as it's warm! with no kids! and no rain! and we're going more than 0.7 but less than 2 miles! and my wife doesn't say they're dangerous!) than a world where any one of these companies is a serious $1b technology company.

I mean: doesn't it just feel natural?: these are little novelty tourist scoot rental companies.