Like all shared travel services, regulation is becoming a big issue for electric scooter companies.

    Following the global expansion of shared bicycles and shared ride-hailing services, a new type of shared travel service, electric scooters, has also begun the pace of global expansion.

    Techcrunch reported that Lime announced its entry into Madrid in early August and launched hundreds of electric scooters in the Spanish capital. A week ago, rival Bird launched an electric scooter in Paris and plans to expand the market to Tel Aviv.

    Since December last year, Lime has brought services to many European cities. Lime also recently raised 335 million US dollars of investment, and reached a cooperation with travel giant Uber, in order to better seek the global market.

    Although Bird and Lime are not the only two companies in this field, they are currently the ones that have raised the most funds. So far, Bird has raised $415 million in investment, while Lime has raised $467 million.

    Like all shared travel services, regulation is becoming a big issue for electric scooter companies. In San Francisco, the City Department of Transportation is currently reviewing service permit applications for 12 electric scooters. According to the new SFMTA decree, in the next two years, San Francisco will only issue five licenses for electric scooters, and each license does not exceed 500 scooters. In other words, the number of electric balance bikes in San Francisco will not exceed 2500 at any time.

    The implementation of this plan is to better manage the excessive number of electric scooters from Bird, Lime and Spin.

    However, with the influx of a large amount of money into these electric scooter companies, as well as the interest of ride-sharing giants Lyft and Uber, whether these cities like it or not, the trend of electric scooters has become, and future development is only a matter of time and quantity.