Bikes from the Seoul city government’s public bike service. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday it will allow advertisements to be placed on bikes from its public bike service to overcome deficits.
Tthe city’s unmanned bike rental service, dubbed Ttaereungyi in Korean, faced deficits of 9 billion won (US$6.88 million) in 2019, 9.9 billion won in 2020 and 10.3 billion won in 2021.
Seoul plans to accept brand advertisements only, rather than products, to maintain Ttaereungyi’s reputation of being a public bicycle. As such, a single company will become the sole advertiser.
The advertisements will be placed as company logos or slogans next to Ttaereungyi’s official logo.
In consideration of a clean design, the advertisements will be placed on limited locations like the bicycle frame, the signpost at the bicycle stand, the Ttaereungyi app and the service’s website.
The advertisements will be placed on all 41,500 Ttaereungyi bicycles and some 2,600 bicycle stands set up across the city.
The city expects that revenue from the ads will amount to 1.3 billion won in two years. The city will follow through with the administrative process to recruit an ad service provider in September.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
