Startups
Uber-Backed E-Scooter Startup Lime Enters Japan After Korea Exit
- Lime testing Japan’s growing market dominated by Tokyo’s Luup
- San Francisco startup starting with tiny fleet of 200 scooters
Lime electric scooters.
Photographer: Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
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Uber Technologies Inc.-backed Lime is entering Japan’s growing e-scooter ride market in a foray that pits the San Francisco-based startup against homegrown Luup KK.
Lime, which has a global fleet of around 200,000 e-bikes and scooters, on Monday launched its service in some of Tokyo’s most densely populated neighborhoods of Shibuya, Shinjuku, Meguro and Setagaya wards. Lime now has around 200 electric scooters and more than 40 recharging ports. Tokyo-based Luup, which controls more than 90% of the domestic market in terms of ride mileage, operates 9,100 ports.