Reporting for NUPIAO | By NUPIAO Correspondent
Looks like shared bike prices are creeping up again.
As of the evening of June 17, DidiQingju and Meituan Bikes unveiled updated billing rules for Beijing. Starting June 19 and rolling out fully by June 22, these phased adjustments mean you’ll definitely feel the pinch on longer commutes.
If you’re digging into those official notices, you’ll notice they’ve completely overhauled their pricing model. They’re now running two separate tiers—one for weekdays and weekends, and another strictly for holidays—with the biggest shifts happening right in the starting fare and how many free minutes come with it.
Here’s exactly how DidiQingju is rolling this out: holiday rates kick in first on June 19, followed by weekday and weekend pricing on June 22. Under the new setup, both regular days and weekends now start at 1.99 yuan for a full hour, with an extra minute costing just 0.1 yuan. Hop on during a holiday, though, and that starting fee jumps to 2.5 yuan for the same 60 minutes, plus that same 0.1 yuan-per-minute overtime rate.
Compare that to Qingju’s old Beijing rates—1.5 yuan for 30 minutes—you used to pay around 4.5 yuan for a standard hour-long ride. Now, that drops to 1.99 yuan, which actually helps short trips. But don’t get too excited for holiday travel: a single hour out on a public holiday now costs over 66% more than before.
They also threw in a catch: standard ride passes can only cover up to 6 yuan per trip. Any repositioning fees or cancellation charges won’t touch that limit, meaning if your ride runs over or gets bumped, you’re footing the difference yourself. For folks who bike long distances daily, that hidden extra cost really adds up.
Meituan Bikes is already enforcing its fresh rules across Beijing as of midnight on June 19. Your fare splits into two chunks: a base fee and an hourly timer. Regular weekdays and weekends start at 1.88 yuan covering that first 60 minutes, ticking up by 0.1 yuan after that. Holidays lock in the same 1.88 yuan base for the first hour, with the identical 0.1 yuan per-minute overage.
From what we’ve gathered, Meituan’s overhaul only touches the six central districts of Beijing. If you’re outside those zones, prices stay put and bill based on where you unlock the bike. Anyone scanning to open a lock right at midnight on June 19 will be charged under the new tier. Before this switch, you could grab 30 minutes for just 1.50 yuan with that familiar 0.1 yuan/min extra charge.
We reached out to both Qingju and Meituan for comment on these latest changes, but haven’t heard back as of press time. HelloBike, however, dropped us a line saying they have zero plans to raise prices right now.
The third big player, HelloBike, actually rolled out nation-wide rate updates back in early 2026. Today, most major cities see HelloBike starting at 1.99 yuan for the first 60 minutes on workdays, adding 0.1 yuan per minute past that mark. In Beijing during holidays, that starting line climbs straight to 2.5 yuan for the initial hour.
Looking at the current ledger, Meituan’s keeping both weekday and holiday rates slightly below HelloBike and Qingju. Even though HelloBike stayed out of this specific adjustment round, their baseline pricing still sits firmly at the top end of the market.
The truth is, shared bikes have been quietly getting pricier for years, driven by cooling investor sentiment and rising overhead. Back in 2019, the whole sector saw its first wave of hikes, with Qingju and Meituan bumping entry fees from 1 yuan for 15 minutes to 1.5 yuan for 30 minutes—that was pretty much the death knell for the legendary one-yuan ride era. Fast forward to 2022, when Meituan took the lead on subscription bumps, hiking the undiscounted price for weekly passes by 50% and monthly ones by 40%.
Between 2024 and 2025, all three giants found sneaky ways to nudge prices upward. They shrank those introductory time windows, slapped on surge pricing during rush hours, and carved out special holiday premiums. In most cities, that free time got slashed from 30 minutes down to just 10 or 15, masking a real-world price jump of over 60%. The game has shifted hard: nobody’s buying market share with loss-leading deals anymore. It’s all about making sure every pedal stroke covers the actual cost of doing business.
Shared bikes are a classic heavy-asset play. Industry watchers have crunched the numbers, and it’s not cheap: building a brand-new unit runs anywhere from 700 to 1,300 yuan. Those wheels barely last 2 to 3 years before wearing out, which translates to over 200 yuan a year in depreciation—or nearly a buck a day. Toss in logistics, repairs, parking zone management, and the boots-on-the-ground maintenance crews, and you’re looking at a minimum annual operating cost of 400 yuan per bike. Spread that out daily, and you’re easily paying 0.5 to 1 yuan just to keep things moving, locking the daily base holding cost right around 2 yuan.
In the early days of that VC gold rush, companies could absolutely burn cash to grab riders. But once that funding dried up and investors pulled the plug, the math changed overnight. You can’t sustain rock-bottom fares forever without bleeding out. So yeah, raising prices to stabilize cash flow and plug those losses isn’t just an option—it’s a survival move for every platform out there.
On top of that, city regulators are tightening the screws everywhere. Quotas on how many bikes you can drop, strict geofencing for parking, mandatory sanitization, and routine inspections—they all stack up. Compliance is getting expensive, and that pressure is inevitably flowing straight down to the price you see on your phone screen.
For everyday commuters, this tiered pricing shift is honestly rewriting the rules for quick trips. If you’re just popping out for half an hour or less, Meituan still holds its ground on value. Stretch that ride past an hour, and Qingju or HelloBike tend to balance out better on regular weekdays. But hit a holiday, and all three platforms jump in sync, pushing a single trip’s cost dangerously close to double what you’d pay for a short bus ride.
Take Ms. Tian, a frequent rider, who told our team that back in the day, her daily commute via bike cost under 20 yuan a month. After all these rounds of tweaks, she’s now crossing the 50-yuan mark for the exact same riding habits. That value proposition keeps slipping away, piece by piece.
Right now, the domestic landscape has consolidated down to just three major names: Meituan, DidiQingju, and HelloBike. We’re deep in a stock-market battle phase now, meaning no more subsidizing to chase new users. The playbook has flipped entirely toward fixing profitability. With Meituan and Qingju finally aligning on this latest hike, all three players have locked in comprehensive price increases across the board. The industry has basically agreed on a high-cost operating reality, which means we’re highly unlikely to see those prices crash back down anytime soon.
