Taipei — Thousands of commuters were left stranded during rush hour on Tuesday evening after YouBike, also known as Smile Bike, experienced a major system failure. The outage, which began around 6 p.m., prevented riders across Taipei and Taoyuan from renting or returning bicycles, affecting more than 20,000 users.
According to Smile Bike spokesperson Lin Yuanyu, the disruption was triggered by an abnormal connection in the backend system at 6:34 p.m., which quickly spread across multiple stations. Emergency repairs allowed partial service to resume by 7 p.m., but the system remained unstable for several hours and was only fully restored at 12:36 a.m.
An investigation later revealed that the failure stemmed from a software update made on September 27. The update introduced a self-check mechanism for bikes, but under unusually high rental demand last night, the system repeatedly attempted to verify abnormal rental data, causing a surge in traffic and eventual crash.
Lin emphasized that the company will optimize the mechanism to prevent similar failures in the future. He also assured the public that any users who encountered payment problems due to the outage can contact customer service for lenient handling.
The Taipei City Transportation Bureau condemned the incident, saying it disrupted public transportation and damaged confidence in the city’s bike-sharing program. Officials announced that Smile Bike will face penalties under its operating contract, including a suspended fine of up to NT$100,000.