As Didi Chuxing was removed from major application stores and other channels due to serious violations of laws and regulations in collecting and using personal information, the originally dominating online car-hailing market has revived.
Recently, major online car-hailing companies have used “burning money” to attract users and recruit drivers in an effort to re-delineate the market. However, judging from the journey of the online car-hailing market over the years, the market where subsidies are exchanged for profits is often only temporary. Only on the basis of strictly maintaining the bottom line of data security and compliant operations, reasonable pricing and commissions, and efforts to improve services Quality, to prevent big data under the banner of technological innovation, can increase user stickiness and occupy a favorable position in healthy market competition.
The online car-hailing market is making a comeback
As the once “big Mac” in the online car-hailing market, Didi is facing unprecedented challenges.
With the removal of related apps, Didi is currently unable to provide travel services for more new users. Faced with the huge cake temptation of the travel market, other online car-hailing companies have cheered up. The crowds are competing and the situation is coming back. Consumers have also smelled the taste of the “burning money” at the beginning of the online car-hailing market.
Cao Cao Travel offers discounts such as sign-in to receive taxi tickets and invite new users to get cash. As of June, Cao Cao Travel has been launched in 61 cities across the country, with a total of nearly 5 vehicles launched. Million vehicles and 52 million registered users. A T3 travel employee revealed on the Internet that T3 believes that it is currently facing a golden opportunity for development. The company’s management team decided to adjust the Kaicheng plan at an emergency meeting. It will open 15 cities in a row within this month, and the average daily order volume will exceed one million. The reporter noticed that a series of preferential activities such as 0.99 yuan spike and 8 yuan discount coupons were launched on its App.
In addition, AutoNavi has placed a large number of advertisements on Douyin and other platforms to continuously increase its exposure. Meituan Taxi, which has not appeared for a long time, is back online in major app stores and offers package discounts… Some users say that with the blessing of various deductions these days, the cost of taxi rides for the same journey is less than half of the past. The online car-hailing market reignited gun smoke, focusing on new users. For less than 1 yuan, taxis reappeared and consumers became the biggest beneficiaries for a while.
Although the online car-hailing market has been nurtured for many years and the number of users has continued to grow, there is still plenty of room for development. According to the 46th “Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development Status” released by the China Internet Network Information Center, as of December 2020,The number of online car-hailing users in my country reached 365 million, an increase of 2.98 million from March 2020, accounting for 36.9% of the total Internet users. From the perspective of transaction data, the scale of online car-hailing transactions nationwide exceeded 300 billion yuan in 2019. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the scale of online car-hailing transactions will shrink in 2020, but it is expected to rise to 358.1 billion yuan in 2021, and it will exceed 400 billion yuan by 2022.
For a long time, the online car-hailing market has been criticized for the problems of big data on the passenger side and the high rake rate on the driver side caused by a monopoly. Facts have proved that only when the market is fully competitive can the industry develop healthily and sustainably, and jointly make the cake bigger. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Council, said that through market competition, if more online car-hailing platforms grow up, they will be able to check and balance each other and avoid a dominant platform from harvesting users and offering opaque and unreasonable prices. .
Sustainable business model to be solved
If there are any lessons to be learned from the “cash-burning war” in the car-hailing market that year, subsidies The long-term plan will not be absent.
According to an industry insider, the “burning money war” that year is still vivid. Driven by the capital behind it, a number of start-up online car-hailing companies that are in the foreground are fighting fiercely. At that time, consumers really enjoyed the benefits and became more familiar with the new urban travel mode of online car-hailing. With the development of user habits, capital finally “shows fangs”, and through mergers, mergers and other methods, it has contributed to a dominant online car-hailing market. User discounts on online car-hailing have decreased and they are often more expensive than taxis, based on their usage habits and big data to maximize profits, driver-side subsidies have been reduced, and high commissions have caused dissatisfaction. Many problems have gradually surfaced. At this time, although there are complaints from all walks of life, there is not much room for choice.
The data is more illustrative. In October last year, the national online car-hailing supervision information exchange platform received a total of 630 million orders, and Didi accounted for 560 million orders, accounting for approximately 89%. There are 8 online ride-hailing platforms with a total of more than 1 million orders that month, of which Cao Cao’s 16.6 million orders are ranked second, and T3 travel’s 15.8 million orders are ranked third. The total is only a fraction of Didi’s orders.
From “burning money” to becoming the industry leader to obtain high returns, Didi has embarked on a path for the development of online car-hailing companies. However, this road is not only difficult, but most online car-hailing companies simply cannot go. Didi IPO prospectus shows that in the past three yearsIn the meantime, Didi’s net losses totaled 35.3 billion yuan, followed by 15 billion yuan, 9.7 billion yuan and 10.6 billion yuan. Without sufficient capital support, the average car-hailing company simply cannot burn so much money, and it is not known whether it will eventually make a profit after the money is burned.
Since the subsidy methods used by Internet companies are not sustainable, how can the online car-hailing industry develop to be healthy and sustainable? At present, many parties still need to participate and explore.
There are two main business models in the current online car-hailing market. One is the C2C model that uses private cars as operating vehicles, including Didi; the other is The B2C model with self-owned vehicles as the main transportation capacity, such as Cao Cao travel, T3 travel, etc. The B2C model is regarded as a heavy asset model. Both vehicles and drivers require heavy investment. It seems that the asset operation “burden” is heavier. However, due to its advantages in security, standardized services, etc., it is instead regarded as one of the current practical and feasible development directions for online car-hailing.
At the beginning of the establishment of T3 Travel, the company’s CEO Dayong Cui explained that for a long time, there have been pain points in the field of mobile travel such as difficulty in taking taxis, safety anxiety, poor experience, and opaque costs The root cause lies in the inability to effectively manage and supervise the supply side under the C2C model, resulting in inconsistent service standards, inability to fundamentally guarantee compliance capacity, and inability to eliminate potential safety hazards.
Cao Cao Travel is an online car-hailing platform under the Geely Group. The “Q1 Mobile Internet Industry Data Research Report for 2021” released by Aurora shows that the number of monthly active users of Cao Cao’s travel reached 5.677 million, a substantial increase of nearly 140% over the same period last year. Pang Bo, general manager of Cao Cao Travel Brand Public Relations Center, said that in addition to the basic requirements, Cao Cao Travel requires all drivers to pass the platform’s customized “driver job quality evaluation model”. The test shows that they have good emotional control capabilities and a healthy mental state to complete the registration. , Before taking the job, they must also receive systematic training in business etiquette, medical knowledge, etc., to unify service standards.
It’s worth noting that whether it’s Cao Cao backed by Geely, or relying on FAW, Dongfeng, Chang’an T3, and the Shouqi contract car under the Shouqi Group, The organic combination of “powerful” traditional car companies and the online car-hailing market, extending the industrial chain and increasing profitability, is entirely possible to create a new path for the sustainable development of the market.
Strictly observing the bottom line of safety is the key
No matter what the future path of the car-hailing market will beThe choice, Didi’s investigations all sounded the alarm: the bottom line of data security cannot be broken, and industry participants still need to work hard to achieve compliance operations, and enhance market stickiness through continuous improvement of service quality, so as to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the industry.
To maintain the bottom line of data security, online car-hailing companies are duty-bound. Zhao Zhiguo, director of the Information and Communication Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, emphasized at a press conference of the State Information Office not long ago that data is the country’s basic strategic resource and an important production factor. The next step will be to accelerate the formulation of data security management policies in the industrial and information fields, and to better undertake the implementation of the “Data Security Law” in the industry. Organize and carry out industry data classification management, important data catalog formulation and other related work, build a standard system in the field of industry data security, and study and formulate important data security standards in the field of Internet of Vehicles and Industrial Internet.
For online car-hailing companies, it is clear that the current situation cannot be used only as an opportunity to seize the market. It is very important to learn from it and take timely measures to remedy the situation. Zhu Wei, an associate professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, believes that Didi’s problems with information security and user data protection are in fact a common problem in the online car-hailing sharing economy. Network security and data security must be placed above efficiency and the market.
Continue to promote the compliance operation of the online car-hailing market, which has a long way to go. According to the statistics of the national online car-hailing supervision information interactive platform, as of June 30, a total of 236 online car-hailing platform companies across the country have obtained online car-hailing platform operating licenses, and a total of 3.493 million online car-hailing driver licenses and vehicle transportation permits have been issued across the country. 1.327 million copies. But at the same time, the June online car-hailing industry situation released by the Ministry of Transport shows that there are 13 online car-hailing platforms with more than 300,000 orders in June, and some of these 13 platforms have an order compliance rate of only 16.2. %.
Whether compliance management is an old topic in the online car-hailing industry has always been the focus of debate among all parties, and it is also the main bottleneck for the expansion of the online car-hailing market. In order to seize the market, some online car-hailing platforms will lower the audit standards and use a large number of non-compliant vehicles and drivers to increase capacity. This is obviously not a sign of the healthy development of the industry. Non-compliant operations cause personal safety risks for passengers, and the impact on platform operations is sometimes fatal. The platform is duty-bound to promote compliance operations. This is the cornerstone for the industry to move on the right track.
From “price fight” to “service fight” has become the key to winning the competition in the second half of the online car-hailing market. After years of market cultivation, coupled with the inherent advantages of online car-hailing, such as transparent driving routes, and anytime, anywhere car-hailing advantages, more and more consumers have become accustomed to using online car-hailing. For “regular customers”, in addition to price, the most critical factor isservice quality.
Pang Bo said that Cao Cao provides systematic training to drivers and has standardized requirements for dress and service. The main operating vehicle selected is Geely Emgrand EV pure electric vehicle, which has The advantages of zero fuel consumption, zero noise, comfort and quietness are to continuously improve the travel experience of consumers.
After the competition in the online car-hailing industry enters the second half, whoever can make better efforts in service quality is likely to get more users’ favor. Even if you no longer “burn money”, at a reasonable price, it can become the user’s first choice and firmly occupy a place in the market.