Why power bank sharing could go the way of bike sharing

The sharing economy’s troubles have been brought into the limelight again by a protracted patent dispute between two power-bank sharing companies.

Guangzhou's intellectual property court at the end of last year ordered Jiedian, a power bank-sharing company owned by New York-listed online beauty retailer Jumei, to compensate rival Laidian for two patent infringements of its charging devices. 

A file of the December 28 verdict seen by FinanceAsia shows the payment was reduced to Rmb30 million $4.4 million from an initial Rmb36 million because Jiedian was said to be making a loss, which is interesting given Jumei's interim report in...