ON THURSDAY, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development co-issued a draft regulation on propelling the development of the short-time car rental industry to solicit public opinions. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

The car rental industry in the regulation mainly refers to the newly emerged car-sharing industry, and the draft spends many large paragraphs talking about the business model.

Actually, the idea of short-time car rentals emerged earlier than that of the booming bike-hiring industry. However, within two years, short-time bike rental services have already taken off not only in metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai, but also in a majority of second and third-tier cities. The total number of bicycles offered for shared use now exceeds 20 million and is expected to reach 50 million by the end of this year.