Ford’s e-scooter company Spin is leaving markets and laying off staff

Spin, a startup Ford for sharing e-scooters acquired back in 2018, it shifted its focus in its pursuit of profitability and as a result left almost all open licensing markets globally. IN fast by company CEO Ben Bear, said Spin had started descending operates in several markets in the United States, as well as throughout Germany and Portugal. The company will also close its business in Spain, which could happen sometime on February 22nd.

Open license markets are places where more scooter companies can run businesses, without limiting the size of the fleet. Bear said they were “creating an insecure work environment” with a “race for the lowest prices”. It doesn’t sound like Spin is doing well in those markets – Bear wrote that Spin was unable to offer “a kind of reliable high quality service [it] proud [itself] to its drivers and city partners ”in those locations – so he decided instead to take a different path.

Spin extended its business after Ford took over in a bunch of cities in the U.S. and around the world. In 2021 deployed a new scooter model that is more durable than the previous ones and united with Google to show users the nearest e-bike or e-scooter on Maps. Unfortunately, this was not enough to prevent this restructuring.

In the future, Spin will focus on limited supplier markets in the US, Canada and the UK. Specifically, in places where cities and campuses “select partners through a competitive procurement process”. Reportedly, Spin generates twice as much revenue in such places compared to sites with a free market. Shifting the focus to these places makes sense in this case, but closing locations unfortunately also means the company is releasing staff: his move will affect a quarter of its staff, who will receive severance pay and a scholarship.