The pace of innovation continues to accelerate as new markets launch and roll up faster than you can say, whoops, wish I put on a helmet before I jumped on that scooter. 🙂

Seriously -it seems like the latest hot trend in micro mobility had a long and bright future. It likely still does and this is part of the reason why the players need to consolidate to ward off competition from Uber and others.

It is easy to see numerous companies leveraging their ecosystems to get a piece of the scooter biz. Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, etc.

Speaking of ecosystems – don’t miss last night’s interview with CGTN America where we spoke on cryptocurrencies. We talked about ecosystems a lot.

This is an appropriate time to give a shout-out to CGTN America – it is amazing. It gives you information available nowhere else and lots of it is global in nature – something missing in the U.S.

Speaking of consolidation… Bird and Scoot today announced that Bird is acquiring Scoot, the San Francisco-based electric vehicle pioneer. The acquisition is a strategic decision from two like-minded companies. Together, Bird and Scoot will offer riders more vehicles featuring the latest technology advancements for the sharing market, and provide service in more communities, while helping cities meet their ambitious goals of reducing both automobile traffic and climate-changing carbon emissions. Scoot will continue to operate as Scoot, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bird.  

“Since we launched the first electric vehicle service you access with your smartphone, we have pursued our mission of Electric Vehicles for Everyone and showed cities that shared, electric mobility is a convenient, fun, and affordable way for citizens to get where they need to go,” said Michael Keating, Scoot’s founder and President. “With Bird, our mission remains the same, but the scale at which we will pursue it, and the vehicles we will offer will be so much better for our riders and the cities we serve.”

Shameless plug alert – If you are in the market to purchase tech or communications products, SCOOT on down to the ITEXPO #TechSuperShow, Feb 12-14, 2020 Fort Lauderdale, FL. and learn about the latest in UCaaS, the Channel, IT, IOT, Edge, Cybersecurity, AI, SD-WAN, and the Future of Work.