Although Canada is a country that relies heavily on car travel, the frequency of use of cars is declining.
Hai Chuangpai HiTrends reported on September 16 (by Ray)
Electric scooters on the streets of Canada
In China, it is difficult for venture capital circles to bypass the topic of sharing economy. With the collapse of the bubble, whether it is the continued OFO or the hospice of the Mobility bicycle, they are facing huge and sustained losses in 2019, and the sharing economy is judged as a “pseudo-wind”.
However, the complete fact may not be the case. Although the slogan of sharing bicycles has been shattered, the United States has already developed another trend far from the other side of the ocean, that is, shared electric skateboards led by two startups, LimeBike and Bird. car. Among them, Bird’s founder, Travis, served as vice president of Unicorn Uber and Lyft’s COO. LidBike’s founder, Brad, was also the managing partner of Kunzhong Capital’s Silicon Valley in the United States. Both companies became unicorns within two years.
According to McKinsey’s research report on the transformation of future travel modes released in March this year, the transition from private to shared vehicles will continue, and shared travel is still a $30 billion market in the US, and it is still growing. .
McKinsey’s other research report on “Shared Mircromobility” quotes the use of shared electric scooters and electric bikes, pointing out that the market size in China, Europe and the US can be before 2030 It has reached 3,000 to 500 billion US dollars, of which the US market has 2-3 billion US dollars.
This report also mentions that 60% of travel scenarios in North America, including more than 20% of public transportation, are within 8 km, and can be improved through similar shared micro travel solutions.
Starting a business as soon as you graduate, opportunities are not waiting for people
Like Like LimeBike and Bird, the two companies in the United States have done a lot to do with sharing business. Roll Technologies hopes to bring the trend of sharing economy to Canada.
Although Canada is a country with a population base much smaller than that of the United States, Toronto and its surrounding areas are close to the population density and life scenes of many American cities.Transformation of transportation and travel modes. The actual problem of electric scooters is still the “last mile” of urban traffic, especially in the city center. As a start-up, they chose to become the operator of the shared scooter. They are aiming at this problem and solving the pain points of short-distance travel.
After prolonged observation and investigation, Richard and founder of Roll Technologies found that although Canada is a country that relies heavily on car travel, the frequency of car use is decreasing in crowded urban life. With the changes in the urban structure, more and more young people are pouring into big cities. The public transportation in the suburbs is relatively developed, and fewer young people are willing to buy a car.
In the specific life scene of commuting, public transportation in the city center is a general solution to the “last mile” problem. The long waiting time during the rush hour and the crowded space in the car are not available for a long time. Optimization, the carrying capacity of public transport has also been increasingly tested.
In order to solve the pain points that white-collar workers encountered in the morning peak commute, Richard, who was still in the graduation stage of the University of Toronto in March this year, and Jack, who also has entrepreneurial passion, hit it and decided to take the United States into the wind. Sharing the electric scooter LimeBike and Bird’s model brought Canada and founded Roll Technologies.
According to the “time machine” theory put forward by Sun Zhengyi, Richard believes that the trend that has appeared in the United States a few years ago has already occurred in Canada. The success of LimeBike and Bird can bring invaluable experience to the Canadian market. Encourage entrepreneurs in Canada to better understand future opportunities and challenges.
Emerging industries still have a lot of problems to be solved
Richard believes that business model innovation is not the core factor that leads to business success, but more important competitiveness will be reflected in products and operations. For frequent users of public transportation to and from the suburbs, shared bicycles and scooters will be a substitute for traffic in the city, and with short-distance travel tools for long-distance buses, the ideal radius of activity is about 10 minutes.
In his view, sharing bicycles as a short-distance travel tool has limitations in terms of piles and piles. First of all, bicycle riding requires more movements, and the amplitude is large, which is not very effective, and the physical energy consumption is large. In addition, the versatility of cycling is also problematic, and it is very unfriendly to office workers wearing commuter clothing, especially women wearing skirts. In contrast, allowing users to stand and ride, and replacing power with electricity, will undoubtedly make electric scooters a more suitable tool for short trips than bicycles.
A few days before the interview, the team members of Richard and Roll Technologies just docked with the management team in a large amusement park area to prepare for trial operation.
Richard tells HiSoft that HiTrends, the dilemma of shared bicycles is largely due to an unreasonable profit model. In contrast, electric scooters have a starting price of $1 and a charge of 15 cents per minute. To be reasonable.
According to Bloom Stone author Bld Stone, “If the average ride time is one mile and the scooter is traveling at 10 mph, then the average ride takes six minutes. At the end, the user has to pay. $2. Assuming each car is used 5 times a day, it will generate $10 a day for the company. Excluding the cost of $5 per day for charging, a net profit of $5 per car. Suppose the cost per scooter is 300. In US dollars, another $50 plus global positioning system and security features, the cost of $350 can be recovered in more than two months.”
However, the business that seems to be stable and not lost does not actually look so good. Just a year ago, LimeBike and Bird had experienced expansion problems in the United States.
Bird has launched electric scooters in Santa Monica, California, and nearly one-third of traffic jams involve sharing scooters, causing huge problems for local transportation bureaus and police stations. LimeBike’s products also suffered from frame breaks due to quality problems, which not only lost the car, but also lost revenue. It can be seen that security issues and GR have become the two biggest barriers to limiting development.
In addition, the problems caused by immature operations have exacerbated the deterioration of the US market environment. Since the crowd-sourced model is used to recover vehicles with insufficient power, the per-person billing method is used to encourage citizens to register as an operator through the APP. It seems that this model can save the company time and effort, but in the absence of training and accountability mechanisms, operators are only willing to consider how to collect more cars, regardless of how to protect the scooter, the actual use of many scooters The life expectancy is only about 2 months.
When talking about the above issues, Richard told us that the Roll Technologies team learned the lessons of LimeBike and Bird’s expansion in the United States. After doing a lot of market research in North America, they found out and raised higher levels for Chinese domestic design teams. Hardware requirements.
Although it’s almost the same target group and business model, Richard believes that by working with domestic supply chains, Roll Technologies’ team can use a wider pedal to improve the stability of the user’s standing and adjust the handlebars. The height and size of the wheels allow the user to use and maintain a more comfortable stance for further safety. In addition, the domestic design team has also improved the structure, so that Roll’s scooters have a life cycle of 8-12 months to ensure green environmental protection.
For operations, Richard also strives to use the people trained by Roll Technologies to take charge of the car, and to do quality inspection and security inspection after receiving the car, once the damage is found, the first time to repair, the product must be able to scrap The recovered ones are recycled.
In addition, in the promotion process, in order to get higher exposure, Richard believes that electric scooters are still a very fresh product for Canadians. They need to make more use of people’s curiosity and let the media take the initiative. The shared scooter arranged on the street is photographed and reported. To this end, other members of the Richard and Roll team will choose the most crowded places in the downtown area to create a natural exposure.
At the beginning of the launch, Roll’s operations team was also preparing to set up a team for cycling demonstrations, using a “flash” activity, riding an electric scooter on the street as a potential user during morning work hours. Demonstration can also further achieve the effect of attracting attention.
Considering the GR issue, Richard pointed out that in many scenarios, Roll’s promotion needs to be done with the regulatory authorities. Electric scooters in the United States have caused too many serious accidents because of the inadequacy of safety education. Therefore, as a Canadian entrepreneurial team, Roll decided to learn lessons and strive to educate users through the use of regulatory power. Scooter.
Compared to a US counterpart, Roll is a start-up company with at least a good resume when the product is ready for the first pilot. (Note: only they have not been punished by the regulatory authorities here)
“In fact, if the product is good enough, the use cycle is long enough, and operations are in place, standards and specifications are formed, then burning money is not a must-do.” Richard felt that Roll Technologies should not be defined as An Internet company that uses the location of a shared travel service provider is more accurate, using the Internet as a tool to better connect and provide services to users.
