Column by Anatoly Kostyrev on the approach to regulation of the kicksharing market

The news about the decision of the Paris authorities to introduce a ban on the rental of electric scooters from September 1 after the referendum led to a new wave of discussion of this issue in Russia.

Vice Speaker of the State Duma, a candidate for mayor of Moscow in the elections this September, Vladislav Davankov, announced that a bill was submitted to parliament on the right of local authorities to ban electric scooters or limit their speed with the consent of residents. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin promised to deal with the problem of mass accidents involving electric scooters, citing international experience, including Paris (see page 5). The head of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Alexander Belsky, also plans to return to the topic in the new parliamentary season. And the mayor of Sochi, Alexei Kopaygorodsky, recently announced a restriction on the rental and movement of scooters in 23 zones within the boundaries of the historical center of Sochi.

Kicksharing services are not the first to face the threat of restrictions, but the market has probably now reached a stage where it will be more difficult to justify the untimeliness of measures.

Usually, when there is a risk of additional government intervention in a particular industry, its participants or lobbyists point to the risks for a “fast-growing, emerging market.” But kicksharing seems to have already passed this stage.

According to the reporting of the main electric scooter rental service Whoosh, the growth rate in the number of trips is declining. If in 2022 the indicator increased by more than 107% year-on-year, to 54 million trips, then in the first eight months of 2023 it increased by 94% year-on-year, to 71.5 million trips. And the user growth rate has dropped from 100% in 2022 to 45.8% in 2023. At Yandex, in the second quarter of 2023, the total number of trips by taxi, scooters and carsharing increased by only 18% yoy (in the second quarter of 2022, the figure increased by 28% yoy).

The need for electric scooter rental services in additional customers can also be judged by the activation of push notifications with the corresponding offer, which my colleagues who do not use this service began to pay attention to. Researchers are already seeing signs of industry consolidation. According to the API Kontur service, in 2021-2023, the previously increasing number of companies renting scooters decreased from 52 to 37.

We are likely to see a change of rhetoric in scooter rental services communicating with regulators soon, who may focus on self-regulatory proposals. The example of marketplaces also facing a lot of claims in their work shows that such tactics can be quite effective.