Bike rental firm ofo began urging its users to transfer their existing deposits in the app to online loan platform PPmoney as part of a commercial agreement with the lender.
ofo last year increased its deposits for new users from RMB 99 ($14) to RMB 199, though existing users were not affected. Now, riders who have not upgraded to the new deposit tier have been presented with an in-app pop up prompting them to convert their RMB 99 deposit to a RMB 100 asset in the PPmomey ecosystem in order to enjoy deposit free rides. PPmoney has a 30-day lock-in period in which users don’t have access to their money. However, the company claims that once the time has lapsed, users can withdraw the deposit with interest.
Source: Technode