Foro survival, test water smart electric car, benchmarking calf.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Tech Planet” (ID: tech618), the author often Yu Jing. The original title “ofo quietly moved away from Zhongguancun”
The little yellow car ofo moved again. Since its inception in 2014, this is the fifth time that ofo has moved. This time, ofo left Zhongguancun, where many Internet companies gathered, and even did not even disclose it publicly.
Every time office space is relocated, it has witnessed the rise and fall of ofo. Four times before moving, from the community and hotel apartments of Peking University Science and Technology Park, to Zhongguancun Ideal International Building, and then to the Internet Finance Center, ofo has never moved away from the founder Dawei’s alma mater around 5km.
Recently, Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618) visited the office of the office building of the Internet financial center in the village of Zhongguancun. It was found that people had gone to the building, and theo had quietly moved away from its “land of origin” Zhongguancun.
In addition, Tech Planet has exclusive information, ofo now has more than 200 employees, in addition to the original business, is still actively trying new business such as smart electric vehicles, and find a way.
Removing from Zhongguancun
On September 17, Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618) visited the Internet Finance Center and found that the floor of the building had no name for the company.
*There is no ofo on the floor guide of the Internet Finance Center
After that, Tech Planet came to the office at the 5th floor of theo and found that theo had moved out of here. “Logo anytime, anywhere,” Slogan is still there, but glassTwo eye-catching red paper black-and-white notices were posted on the door: “The small yellow car (ofo) has moved away.”
In this regard, Tech Planet asked the China Merchants Department of the Internet Finance Center, the other party said that “ofo just handed over the keys, but it is not clear where they moved.” According to the latest rent data of the Internet Finance Center official website, the listing day The rent is 14 yuan / square meter / day, higher than the level of office buildings in other areas of Beijing. According to data from December 2018, DTZ’s average rent for Grade A office buildings in Beijing is 403 yuan per square meter per month.
A person familiar with the matter told Tech Planet that ofo recently moved to the vicinity of the Peony Garden, about 5 kilometers east of Zhongguancun, but it is not convenient to tell the specific location. “The current location and property are very tight, and I am worried about large-scale personnel gathering. Deposit). However, there are also former employees of ofo who said, “I heard that ofo moved to Changping.”
Tech Planet called the hotline on the official website for verification, but the call was not answered.
It can be said that ofo is a “home” in Zhongguancun and flourished. Daiwei started from the campus of Peking University. At the beginning, he took the team to work in the Longning ONE Community of Longhu. The small building opposite him was the dormitory where he lived for several years. In 2015, the number of employees increased to more than a dozen people, ando moved to a two-storey duplex hotel apartment near Peking University.
After a year’s Christmas, shortly after completing the $130 million Series C round of financing, the soo-loving ofo moved its headquarters to the ideal international building overlooking most of Peking University, renting 10, 11 and 15 floors and 20 The floor uses a full four floors as an office workplace.
According to media reports, in order to recruit the best talents, Dai Wei personally ordered the decoration of the 20-story canteen according to Google’s standards. In addition, theo’s conference room is named after the world, except Beijing, New York, San Jose, and Svalbard, Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. Behind this is the vision of ofo: “Let the world have no strange corners.” Dai Wei led theo to experience the most prosperous glory in the ideal international building. After the expansion period, it also reached the most intense competition between Mobai and the competition. The peak of the daily average of 32 million. However, after the situation of ofo has turned sharply, it has experienced many difficulties such as the large shareholder drove the ofo, the merger of Mobai, the new round of financing is not in place, the shortage of funds, and multiple rounds of layoffs.
In November 2018, theo in the storm moved the Beijing headquarters from the ideal international building to the Internet financial center.
*In September 2019, ofo’s office in the Internet Finance Center was gone to the sky
*December 2018, ofo is located in the office of the Internet Finance Center
In the internet financial center, ofo experienced a bigger storm. In December 2018, in the cold winter, hundreds of people came to the Internet Finance Center to ask for a car rental deposit. The people who came in from the elevators all the way to the outside of the building, and went to the side of the road.
Tech Planet found that as of September 18, there were still more than 15 million users waiting in line to return the deposit. During the period, the refund rate of theo is not consistent. For example, from February 16th to 18th, the refund amount is 22,000, and on August 19-21, the refund amount is 5600.
From 6,000 to 200 people
In January 2019, shareholder changes occurred in Beijing’s affiliated company, Berklock Technology Services Co., Ltd., founding team members Xue Ding and Zhang Yuding withdrew, and ofo said that this action is a normal adjustment of the subsidiary.
Informed people told Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618), founding team Chen Zhengjiang and others are still following Dai Wei, but Zhang Dingding and Xue Ding have left their own business.
Accordingly, Zhang Weiding’s entrepreneurial project is called “BLANK” for the new project. The main products are fast-moving products. The first batch of products include shower gels and other toiletries. After Xue Ding left, he first made an electronic door lock, but because the electronic door lock was already in the Red Sea, it was difficult to make it again, and then turned to tourist hotel related projects.
The above-mentioned insider said that he was not surprised by this. “As early as the end of last year, some co-founders and Dai Wei have not communicated so closely.”
The insider told Tech Planet that ofo currently has more than 200 employees, including software, finance, legal affairs, etc., and most of them are software personnel. “APP is the core asset of ofo, and it is necessary to maintain the software first.”
It is understood that at the peak period, ofo has 6,000 employees. In the period from January to May 2017 alone, the number of companies rose from 800 to 3,000, and the crowds rang, and new people joined every day.
But since 2018, ofo has experienced multiple rounds of layoffs, and until recently, some unpaid employees were applying for arbitration.
However, after the year is over, theo also recruited some new employees. An ofO’s resigned employee told Tech Planet, “This is because, when theo is the most beautiful, the wages are far above the industry level. The new recruits are given wages according to normal levels, so the old and new replacement, Can save costs.”
Seeking a way
Despite the increasing difficulties, founder Dai Wei is still insisting on seeking a way out for ofo. However, because of the arrears of suppliers and users owed money and deposits, the road to untrustworthy self-responsibility is not smooth.
A detail of an insider telling Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618) is a good example of Dawei’s current dilemma. Dai Wei went on a business trip because the subsidiary Dongxia Datong was included in the list of enforced persons. The court made a “restricted consumption order”. Dai Wei, who was unable to take the high-speed rail and the plane, had to sit with the staff for more than 10 hours. The train goes to the local area.
Broken arm survival has not changed the status of ofo, the internal transformation ofOo is trying a variety of models in order to turn around.
One is the proxy mode. For example, ofo may withdraw from some cities and agent the city’s bicycle business to other bicycle companies. From the end of 2018, ofo has successively commissioned agency models in cities such as Weihai and Taian to reduce the offline operating costs of shared bicycles. At present, ofo is implementing this light asset model in third- and fourth-tier cities, which is also a means of ono refined operation. The second is to make a traditional bicycle. However, the above-mentioned employees are not optimistic about this model. “There are already very good companies. It is very difficult to do it with the status of ofo.”
The third is a smart electric car. The smart electric vehicle project is said to be against the Mavericks, with the intention of surpassing the Mavericks smart electric car in terms of product, experience and intelligence. Insiders believe that “the most likely approach is that ofo provides platform services and shares with hardware vendors.” Previously, in order to refund the deposit, repay the supplier’s arrears, and revitalize the company, ofo has tried a series of initiatives. Survival, for example, testing water P2P, selling online and offline advertisements, public advertising, involvement in e-commerce, testing water scooters, and selling company assets, etc., “a set of 2000 sets of employees can be configured during the company’s heyday. Lifting the desk, and then basically selling all the discounts.”