(Yicai Global) Aug. 18 -- Beijing Bikelock Technology Co. held a press conference in Seattle, announcing that its bicycle-sharing service Ofo has been formally unloosed into the city after it obtained a license from the local government.

The Seattle Department of Transportation plans to roll out 1,000 Ofo 'yellow bikes' in Seattle this month, and add more in future in line with the demand of residents and tourists in the city, 36kr.com reported.

The Beijing-based tech firm chose Seattle as its first stop in the US market because the city is home to many major multinational concerns, such as Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ:MSFT], Amazon.com Inc. [NASDAQ:AMZN], Boeing Co. [NYSE:BA] and Starbucks Corp. [NASDAQ:SBUX], affording it enormous scope for collaborating with the global leaders in technology development, business cooperation and big data research.

Ofo tested out its service in San Francisco, California, earlier this year. It currently operates about eight million shared-bikes in 170 cities in China, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan.

Its arch rival, Mobike, is also making incursions into foreign markets, public information shows. Mobike staged its international debut in Singapore in March, followed by service releases in major European cities including the UK's Manchester and London, and Italy's Florence and Milan.