Bike sharing is shifting into higher gear in Japan as a string of new players and leading Chinese services announce their entry into a nascent but growing domestic market.

Popular flea-market application operator Mercari Inc. on Thursday announced its plans to enter the bike-sharing business in 2018, while a bicycle industry event held in Tokyo on Friday saw a Japanese electronics maker announce the launch of a smartphone-enabled bike-sharing service aiming to dispatch 100,000 bicycles in three years.

"We want to transform the perception of bicycles from being something you buy to something you borrow," said Kaito Kotake, president of Ocean Blue Smart, a bike-sharing startup established by electronics maker Kaihou Japan, which sells electric bicycles and portable car navigation systems. Kotake was speaking at Bicycle City Expo 2017, a two-day event where over 60 bicycle makers, bike-sharing startups, bicycle parking system providers and other related firms gathered.