On the evening of August 6, Chinese technology company Ninebot released its 2024 H1 semi-annual report, which showed that Ninebot's revenue and net profit for the first half of 2024 reached 6.666 billion and 596 million RMB, representing year-on-year growth of 52.20% and 167.82%, respectively.
The company gained attention this year due to its success during the Olympics, when a surge of tourists led the local government to deploy 15,000 UrbanA200 shared E-Bikes to meet transportation needs. All 15,000 of these electric bicycles were manufactured by Ninebot.
Founded in 2012, Ninebot started with self-balancing scooters and later expanded into electric vehicles, scooters, and service robots. In its early development, Ninebot received investment from Chinese tech giant Xiaomi and became a part of its ecosystem.
In 2019, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun shared a photo on social media of himself driving a "go-kart" in a Xiaomi store, which was actually a modified self-balancing scooter made by Ninebot. With Lei Jun’s significant influence in China, Ninebot quickly gained popularity.
The company's founders, Gao Lufeng and Wang Ye, are also alumni of the same university—both graduated from Beihang University with degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Automation. After graduation, they embarked on an entrepreneurial journey. In 2003, they launched an intelligent toy project together, which initially achieved some success but ultimately failed due to issues with product quality control and cash flow.
In 2009, they turned their attention to the relatively novel field of self-balancing scooters. Inspired by the high-priced scooters on the market, such as Segway, which were favored by celebrities, they aimed to develop a more affordable and lightweight product. To this end, Wang Ye even borrowed a Segway for research. After considerable effort, they successfully launched their self-balancing scooter and established Ninebot’s predecessor, Dingli United.
2014 marked a significant turning point for Ninebot. Wang Ye met Zhou Kui from Sequoia Capital at a conference, who expressed great interest in self-balancing scooters and subsequently recommended Ninebot to Shen Nanpeng. Meanwhile, Xiaomi also showed interest in investing. Ultimately, Gao Lufeng and Wang Ye visited both Lei Jun and Shen Nanpeng, successfully securing $80 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital, Xiaomi, and Shunwei Capital.
With funding in place, Ninebot rapidly grew and embarked on an ambitious idea—acquiring Segway. In 2015, Segway was acquired by a professional buyer after undergoing a merger and reorganization and was seeking to sell. Ninebot seized this opportunity and successfully acquired Segway for $61 million.
The acquisition of Segway not only provided Ninebot with valuable technological patents but also facilitated its rapid entry into overseas markets. Leveraging Segway's brand effect, Ninebot's products received a positive response in the European and American markets. After a series of milestone developments, Ninebot successfully went public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Sci-Tech Innovation Board on October 29, 2020, becoming the first domestic "VIE+CDR" company.
As of now, Ninebot has more than 5,000 offline stores. According to public information, Ninebot has been the top-selling brand in China's smart two-wheeled electric vehicle market for two consecutive years. Not only has it seized opportunities in the domestic market, but Ninebot also maintains a leading global market share, with a 70% share in the shared micro-mobility products sector.