The problem of the used car platform is not only a problem of its own. It is also behind a set of social supervision and evaluation mechanisms waiting to be perfected, and the society needs more inclusiveness towards innovation.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account The science and technology said “(ID: xiangling0815), the author has bellmed.
If developed within a manageable range, used car platforms have proven to be a viable business model for the Internet age.
However, with the help of public opinion, there are always a lot of negative news in the impression of many people who use the used car platform. The most typical ones are “Peng Meng consumers”.
A simple truth is that no entrepreneurial platform will actively want this. Most of the negative perceptions of used cars in public opinion come from passiveness and helplessness. Although efforts have been made to change, this cannot be done overnight.
If you zoom in and take a preconceived bias, really look at the A/B sides of this innovative industry, you will find that the problem of used car platform is not only a problem of its own, but also behind it. The whole set of social supervision and evaluation mechanisms are waiting to be perfected, and the inclusive attitude of the whole society towards innovation needs more.
A-side used car platform: “start-up” problem without circumvention
A side, that is, the one that we can see directly. Here, when the used car platform changes its tradition, it is also experiencing a “starting period” problem that the start-up industry must face and cannot escape.
1. The used car platform is the result of innovation and the result of demand
Statistical data show that in the first half of 2019, China’s new car sales continued to be bleak, down 12.4% year-on-year, with passenger car sales falling by 14% year-on-year. At the same time, the used car market maintained a growth trend. In the first half of the year, a total of 6.862 million vehicles were completed, an increase of 3.93% year-on-year, and the transaction amount reached 433.609 billion yuan.
The contrarian growth of used cars is inevitable, After the car ownership reaches its peak, it is often accompanied by the rationalization of car consumption, which will guide used cars to become the mainstream of market transactions.
The automobile circulation data of 2018 shows that the market of new and used cars in the United States accounts for as high as 1:2.3. Automobiles have long been recognized from conspicuous products to ordinary household transportation tools.
China has also experienced a similar process. The post-80s and post-90s consumption concepts have become more pragmatic. The high cost performance of used cars is gradually accepted by most mainstream consumers. At present, China’s new and used car market accounts for 2: 1, there is huge room for development.
At this time, the emergence of second-hand car platforms seems to be a natural chapter. The rapid development of market demand and the Internet model naturally match. The outbreak of the used car market in China requires the promotion of the Internet platform. In turn, the Internet platformization model is also very innovative. It’s hard to find a better field than a used car.
2, the traditional used car market is to the left, the used car platform is to the right
The “deep water zone” of the traditional used car market has made an industry that should have absorbed the dividend of the times, but in the long-term development process, it has formed a market culture with the rule of slaughtering people.
The competent authorities have issued several papers in recent years to improve the level of convenience trading of used cars. The background is that the proportion of merchants operating in good faith in the traditional used car trading market is extremely low. Trading fraud, confusion, and malicious profits are not uncommon.
In fact, the reason why “catty” is so much is that used cars are typical non-standard products. One car and one car are complicated, and the requirements for vehicle detection are high. The “operation space” is also It has become very big.
At this time, the value of used car platforms in addition to trading volume is also highlighted.
Emerging Internet used car platforms often use technology and capital investment to establish a relatively scientific and perfect second-hand vehicle inspection and evaluation system (for example, 259 test standards for melon seeds used in vehicles, which are far higher than industry and national regulations). Changed the phenomenon that traditional offline dealers use the artificial experience and relatively simple detection methods to detect the vehicle condition. The random and operable space is greatly reduced., the interests of consumers can be guaranteed to a greater extent. .
The traditional used car market is thinking about how to kill customers. The used car platform is actively promoting the standardization of verification technology. One left to the right and the original can not be placed on the same cognitive channel.
3. There are rivers and lakes in some places, and the industry is even better at the beginning.
After more than a decade ago, Taobao’s fakes were rampant, and Alibaba’s negative public opinion was under pressure. Online shopping was considered to be the main channel for counterfeit goods and cottage transactions. When WeChat turned out, it almost became a shake.The complicated “lemon market” of the handcart, the platform is the victim of bad sellers like the buyer.
2, “Excessive rights protection” infringes on platform benefits
Because of the rapid development of the industry, the relevant policies and regulations are relatively lagging behind, the definition of responsibility is vague, there are bad sellers who “quietly touch” and make a fortune, and there are also bad buyers who rely on the rights to defend their rights.
In the era of public opinion that “the weak are reasonable”, the platform vs. individual, the original buyer has an absolute advantage of public opinion, and has the “moral high ground” that has been agreed in advance.
In the absence of laws and regulations as a unified enforceable and reference standard, on the one hand, we can indeed see that many buyers are difficult to defend their rights. After all, because of the lack of standards, the platform naturally has to make explanations for its own favorable terms. On the other hand, the phenomenon of excessive rights protection can not be ignored. There are doctors and rooms, and there are endless streams of buyers. Under the premise of fuzzy rules, buyers “have made things big”, and the platform has lost money for the people.
Wealth rights have caused problems for both consumers and the platform.
3. Industry Urgent Supervision Mechanism + Evaluation Criteria + Punishment Mechanism Trinity
In combination with the previous article, the authoritative supervision and punishment mechanism and imperfect standards have become direct problems that hinder the development of the used car industry. At some levels, foreign countries have mature experience to learn from:
A, beforehand: buying and selling credit supervision mechanism
Before the transaction occurs, try to fully understand the information and prevent risky transactions from being put on the agenda.
In the 1980s, several major industry associations in Japan established a relatively complete testing system and trading system under the unified government deployment to ensure the authenticity and transparency of used car information. For example, the vehicle inspection and repair history of the vehicle must be well documented, and the seller must truthfully fill in the basic information and mileage of the vehicle when transferring the vehicle. The accident vehicle must be specially marked. Once the owner or used car dealer changes the mileage, Or conceal, you must bear legal responsibility.
In the United States, there are even professional service companies that provide consumers with information on car history information. The mileage record, maintenance record, maintenance record and other information can be uniquely matched with the vehicle (from the main engine, transportation, fire, financial, etc.) Department), consumers can pay a fee to get a historical report.
The practice of the United States and Japan has solved the problem of sellers gaining improper benefits by concealing the facts of the vehicle to a certain extent. However, there is no such monitoring mechanism in the current Chinese market, and there is no access to important information, making it difficult to be transparent. .
B, in the event: authoritative, unified evaluation criteria
The evaluation of the quality of a car requires a recognized, uniform standard rather than an artificial characterization.
Take the water tanker with common disputes as an example.What is a water tanker, a wading car, a water tanker, and a flooding car? There is no uniform definition standard at the national level. There is no uniform industry guidance standard for the used car industry, and most rely on subjective judgment.
The evaluation of used cars used for trading is not uniform with the standards used for maintenance and insurance. The current 2005 “Management Measures for Used Car Circulation” also deals with soaking cars, burning cars and serious accident vehicles. There is no clear explanation.
In the event of a dispute, it is difficult for both parties to express their own claims to achieve the unification of compensation and treatment opinions. Consumer rights protection and corporate responsibility must be established, and clear standards are required.
C, after the event: accountability mechanism
In the United States, Japan and other countries, sellers have to bear the corresponding legal responsibility to conceal the condition of used cars, concealing the car conditions to some extent as fraud.
This is reasonable, but in the Chinese market, due to the characteristics of second-hand cars that are not standard but not fake, the result of concealing the condition of the car is often only when the buyer buys a car whose price does not match the quality, law, The regulations have not yet been clearly defined, and the definition of responsibility is in ambiguity.
With the current policies, technologies and other conditions, it is impossible to achieve complete transparency of the vehicle conditions, and accountability has become more difficult.
For the used car market in the outbreak period, improving and upgrading the industry system and increasing policy drive are the key to promoting the sustainable development of the used car industry. The “sandwich biscuits” used car platform is more urgent than anyone else. I hope that the contents of these system levels will be implemented.
The tripartite game is normal, but zero and no future
As long as it is in the trading market, there is a game. It is understandable that the second-hand car buyers, sellers and platforms will pursue their own interests maximization under normal circumstances. In the case that the car conditions are not concealed, the seller hopes to estimate higher, buy The family hopes to talk more about the problem and spend less. The platform hopes that the transaction volume will be large and there will be fewer incidents.
This kind of game promotes the continuous improvement of used car platforms.
Only product standardization, business scale, and service ecologicalization, the second-hand car platform is separated from the isolated trading platform with the bicycle price difference as the core, so that the seller’s vehicle value can be better and the buyer can win more profit. At the same time, the platform can achieve large-scale development.
Some used car platforms even try to achieve standardized pricing with a large amount of real transaction data and continuous learning and improved artificial intelligence technology, which is a positive result of the market game to promote progress. For example, the 259 in-depth inspections of used cars by melon seeds are based on the “cloud evaluation” technique, and the appraisers perform them in strict order, avoiding the inaccuracies caused by the differences in language and work habits of different appraisers.
However, sellers conceal information, buyers are excessively defended, and lack of mechanisms and standards to supportIn the end, it is a zero-sum game at the industry level. In the end, the seller will not sell the price, the buyer will suffer losses, and the platform benefits and image will be damaged.
In the long run, in the constant zero-sum game, the used car platform will be unwittingly jointly strangled.
In any case, the used car market is in a new outbreak cycle, and its transformation of the traditional used car market is obvious to all, but innovation means taking time to polish products, improve processes, and also wait for national-level mechanisms. Perfect, all this takes time and patience.
The problems with used car platforms can be made, criticized, supervised, and guideable, but they must not be squandered. The emergence of new things must be sufficiently tolerant in order to make the energy of innovation work better.