In Beijing, bikes have become the latest business battleground. Its streets have suddenly been flooded with fleets of yellow, orange and blue bikes from the companies competing in a new high-tech bike sharing market.

Dubbed 'Uber for bikes', there are more than 200,000 sharing bikes in Beijing alone. The bikes are located, unlocked and paid for all by using your phone and, unlike other bike rental services, the bikes allow users to drop them anywhere they want. They have GPS trackers which allows the next user to find them. At around just 12p for a trip it's easy to see why they've become so popular.

Last year, Mobike and Ofo, the two largest companies, operated in just one city but now they are in more than 40 and aim to reach 200 by the end of this year. Nearly 28 million users are already signed up to their apps and they aim to have 200 million signed up by the end of this year.

Zhang Qi, who is 26-years-old and from Beijing, told ITV News she likes sharing bikes because “you don’t have the problem of traffic jam. And it’s very time effective.”

However, not everyone is happy about this new booming business.

Pictures of bikes blocking roads, being thrown in piles and found in rivers have been shared on social media. Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport called a meeting of the main bike sharing companies in Beijing and urged them to operate more regular parking zones.

“I think these problems are not easy to be solved. It’s not only a company or government’s task but also relies on citizens’ awareness raising.” said Feng Yuanli, a production company owner.

This month the current market leader Ofo will launch a pilot scheme in Cambridge. Five hundred of its bikes have been shipped over from China marking its entry into the UK.

We plan to expand to over 200 cities in China and we are going to expand to over 20 cities in the world so that definitely going include a lot of countries in Europe, UK, we will start with the UK right, Europe and we are going to look at France, Germany, Switzerland and a lot of Northern European countries which are really bike friendly and have this biking culture for many years. Zhang Yan Qi, Ofo's co-founder

In China bike ownership was once a symbol of prosperity. Now it seems sharing, is the new key to success.