69: The largest micromobility manufacturer in the world - Tony Ho of Segway/Ninebot

This week Oliver interviews Tony Ho, VP of Global Business Development for Segway/Ninebot. As the largest Micromobility hardware player globally across a whole heap of different verticals, Tony has a unique perspective on the space and how it’s developing. He’s a Clayton Christensen disciple as well - having studied at Harvard under him, so we get to unpack the theory against the practice of disruptive innovation and why Tony is excited about this space. It’s a great discussion. Specifically, we dig into: - Segway’s wide range of products, and how it conforms to our thesis that micromobility is not just scooters, but a whole range of sub-500kg vehicles. - We talk through how their operations have been affected by Coronavirus in the last 3 months - We talk about how the collapse of the international shared Micromobility industry has impacted the company strategy? - Why Tony sees micromobility as disruptive vs. other modes of transport, and how it conforms to disruptive innovation theory per Clay Christensen’s theory. - How does Segway of thinking of itself positioned alongside auto OEM's - How Segway is thinking about retail vs. shared - Where does Tony think the major growth potential is in terms of vehicle type and markets - We talk through robotics and what has become of the Loomo robot and T60 autonomous scooters - We talk about Segway's performance in the shared space, how they lost their early lead and how they’re responding to it. - How Tony thinks about Segways contribution to a possible Wall-e style dystopian future. - How does Segway think about infrastructure when developing new products, and does this nudge them towards advocacy for better/new bike lanes for your products - As the majority of the world doesn’t have much visibility over micromobility in China, Tony shares insights from there about vehicles, regulation etc - We talk about Segway’s plan to go public and how someone who is interested in getting a copy of their financials from their filing would go about that. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit micromobility.substack.com/subscribe