The battlefield of shared bicycles is still cruel.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Zinc Finance” (ID:xincaijing) author: Xu dream.
Recently, some media have revealed that the shared bicycle brand Zhixiang bicycles owe 90 employees a salary of 2.69 million and compensation of 1.35 million. At the same time, the official website and the customer service hotline have been unable to connect, and the office people went to the building. air.
In this regard, Zhixiang bicycle CEO Cao Kang responded exclusively to Zinc Finance, and the wage arrears is true. The reason is that “the funds are relatively tight. Now this round of financing for the bicycle is a bit dragged, and there is no connection in the middle. Situation.”
For operations and offices, he told Zinc Finance that the servers and apps that are currently enjoying bicycles are still operating normally, but the quality of service will be affected by the reduction in personnel. The team also moved from the original office of more than 2,000 square meters that can accommodate more than 400 people. It is currently working in a housing-renovated office in the North Fifth Ring Road.
Cao Kang said that the reason for moving out was because the original office was too expensive, and the current office was temporary, and then a more suitable office would be chosen.
Sports Bikes on the Street
As with all shared cycling players, Zhixiang bicycles have always been in a situation of burning money. At present, Cao Kang is seeing investors. If this round of financing cannot be negotiated, Zhixiang bicycle will become a member of the bicycle cemetery.
When asked how to survive this time, he answered Zin Caijing, “We can only support, in fact, we are still alive.”
More players have already chosen to give up, such as the Uber bicycles that are now occasionally seen on the streets.
Yubai’s former executive Zhou Wei told Zinc Finance that “there is basically no room for turning over in the country, and there is no chance for small players.” Before December of 2017, Yubai dismissed the team. The income of worship is already very low.
Bicycles after the rain
From 2016 to the present, the battle for shared bicycles has never stopped. Now it has entered the second half.
The street is full of yellow beauty bikes, the small blue bicycles are gradually replaced by the drops of green tangerines, backed by Ali’s hazy bicycles, the number is increasing, this market is already a The game of the field giant.
The second half of the game, the game point from grabbing users, into a business model for profit, grab the city’s share and refined operations.
Share the second half of the bicycle’s wrestling
Alipay, Didi taxi, WeChat, Meituan are the top four apps in Lu Fei’s mobile phone, which is the most commonly used software of Lu Fei.
Lvfei’s company is 1 km from the subway. After the subway, you need to ride a car. He opened the Alipay and swept away a “Hao.” However, the “green orange” built in the Drip App has become his heart. “Light, good riding, open with drops, cheaper than haha.”
He told Zinc Finance, “Mobai App has long been uninstalled. A lot of Mobai’s cars need to open the US group app and hold the place.”
There are a lot of users like Lu Fei, who are no longer willing to install an app to unlock a car.
Haya bicycles on the street
At the end of July, after the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission talked about sharing bicycle companies in Beijing, only five companies including Moby bicycle, ofo bicycle, small blue bicycle (green orange), convenience bee bicycle and Harbin bicycle were included in Beijing. Internet rental bicycle supervision and service platform supervision and management.
In fact, in these five, theo has been dead end, the convenience bee share is very small, and Moby is being replaced by the US group bicycle, so it is the final of the Harbin, Green Orange and Meituan cycling, which is essentially Ali. Didi and the three kingdoms of the US Mission.
These are secretly competing, and the corner of the second half of sharing bicycles is to compete for market quotas and profits.
The number of shared bicycles has been regulated since last year, and the replacement has become a big move for the giants to compete for market share.
In May of this year, Didi launched a green orange bicycle in Zhongguancun and other places in Beijing. The first batch was 3000 vehicles, which was used to replace the 10,000 used small blue bicycles that had been placed before; on July 27, Mobai The new bicycle “Mei Tuan Huang” began to appear in Shanghai Huangpu District and Pudong NewDistrict, this is the old car upgrade and replacement activity opened by Mobai, which will replace 40,000 new bicycles in Shanghai.
Mobay’s new bicycle “Mei Tuan Huang” is provided by respondents
As the color changes, there is also the price of the ride. Since April this year, Harbin, Moby, and Xiaolan have announced price increases in Beijing: According to the latest billing rules, the price of the Meituan (Mobai) bicycle and the small blue bicycle are the same, and 1 yuan is charged within 15 minutes. Add 0.5 yuan for every 15 minutes,
In other words, you have to pay 2.5 yuan for 1 hour. Harbin cycling is adjusted from $2 per hour to $1 per 15 minutes, and now costs $4 for an hour of riding.
This is not the first price increase, and each bicycle has continuously increased the ride cost by a small amount. Sun Naiyue, an analyst in the field of Yiguan Auto Travel, told Zinc Finance that several companies are now pursuing the ability to increase their liquidity, at least with the cost, because neither the US Mission nor the Didi can make a blood transfusion for the bicycle business. Investors have to explain.
“Returning to rationality to explore the way of liquidation, price increases are understandable, but the price has not risen, because users will lose to public transportation.” Sun Naiyue said that the ceiling of the price increase is very low.
The price increase is not large, but the operation and maintenance cost is very high. Yuba’s former senior executive Zhou Wei (pseudonym) told Zinc Finance, “I clearly saw the bicycle in this building on the map, but I could not find it.” The car with a cost of more than 1,000 yuan was finally able to “throw away”. In addition, counting the cost of manual dispatching and transportation, the cost of a single-day bicycle maintenance is more than 10 yuan.
Sun Naiyue mentioned that now everyone is emphasizing refined operations, which is to reduce operating costs.
Maibai told Zin Finance that Mobai is strictly in accordance with the principle of “saturated cities only replace and not add”. In the current stage, refined and intelligent operation is the focus. On the full lifecycle intelligent management platform of the Mobike bicycle, the maintenance records of each component of each vehicle are recorded, the service life of each component can be traced, and the design and production of the vehicle can be optimized according to the maintenance record, thereby improving the vehicle. The service life.
Hanzi said to Zinc Finance that in the recovery of the lost vehicles, they have an effective solution to deal with the lost cars through the hazen brain + smart lock + operation and maintenance bos. Based on the decision-making and command center of Harbin Brain, it drives intelligent supply and demand forecasting, intelligent planning, intelligent scheduling, intelligent dispatching, etc., and the bicycle full-link operation is intelligent.
Smart lockIt can intelligently predict and communicate in real time to ensure that operation and maintenance can find lost vehicles more quickly. If a car loses contact with the server, the Bluetooth chip in the fifth generation of the car lock can form a Bluetooth group with the nearby vehicles, and through other vehicles, maintain a certain communication capability with the server, thereby reducing vehicle loss, Lost and help the vehicle to get back.
A passerby is unlocking the Harlan bicycle map provided by the respondent
Shared bicycles in the second half, the market began to calm down, but profitability is still a big test for every shared bicycle company. Sun Naiyue mentioned that it is difficult to level the cost at this stage only by the cost of riding.
She said that the current giants are willing to continue to invest, considering ecological synergies, and feel that the high population coverage of the bicycle business can bring growth to other businesses.
“Only the big platform can recognize the investment in the capital of bicycles, because the value of bicycles is recognized, it is difficult for pure financial investors to recognize this.” Sun Naiyue said.
Rethinking of the exiter
This is a short year, and Zhou Wei describes the experience of a roller coaster.
In July 2016, Uber bicycles officially entered the shared bicycle battlefield. At this time, there are only orange Moby and yellow ofo on the street.
Zhou told Zhai Finance that when the team discussed it at the time, the shared bicycle was the last mile travel solution, which could achieve the same frequency of consumption as subways and buses. “There may be hundreds of millions of orders every day, and the future of shared bicycles may be a bigger travel market than Didi.”
Investors and incomers are looking forward to the rapid growth of this market.
After six months of establishment, Yubai will receive three rounds of combined financing. Backed by the old bicycle manufacturers forever, Zhou Wei feels that Yubai is a rising star. “We feel very excited. In mid-2017, we may have hundreds of millions of books on the books, and feel that the next step is bigger. The funds come in.”
Uber bicycle financing historical data comes from the sky-eye inspection
The most crazy summer of sharing bicycles, Yuba with capital blessing expanded rapidly, the team from justDozens of people started to expand to a maximum of thousands.
Yubai’s position is to strive to be “the third in the industry”. In Zhou Wei’s pre-judgment, Moby and ofo have a first-mover advantage, and Yubai and they have a poor competition. In the end, the industry should be able to survive four or five. “This is a business that requires heavy assets to invest in and operate. Moby and ofo cannot completely eat such a large market. There should be a third, fourth, or even fifth home.”
Yubai started to launch his own car. Zhou said bluntly, the technical level, the bicycles at that time were similar, and the suppliers of components, some of them were the same as the competitors, and the level difference was not big.
Zhou Wei introduced that in terms of cost, Yubai bicycles cost about one thousand yuan. Mocha just started a car with a cost of more than one thousand five, ofo four or five hundred yuan.
Recalling, he thinks that the cost of a car of about seven hundred yuan is more reasonable, which can guarantee the service life of about four or five years. If it exceeds this cost, it is wasteful. “Because you do such a high configuration, users Nothing is perceived, and the cost will increase greatly.”
Ubay bicycles
Seeing ofo and Mobai’s main cities in the first and second tiers, Youbai chose to avoid the core competition of the first line, focusing on the second and third tier cities in the south, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Wuxi, Xiamen… In the first three months of 2017, It was the most crazy moment for Yubai to launch, and the first batch of bicycles was over 100,000 units, which is the fastest time for users to grow.
Zhou Yong remembers that the frequency of users riding at that time was very high. The car that was placed in the middle of the night, went to see it at 6 or 7 o’clock the next morning and found that dozens of cars had been lighted. “As long as you If you have a car, you don’t want to be a user.” He was impressed that some cars can even be riding more than 20 times a day.
In order to meet the strong market demand, the most insane time, Yubai can cast 5,000 to 10,000 cars a day, this state lasted for more than two months.
In order to quickly acquire users, in December 2016, Youbai chose to cooperate with Alipay to implement a free deposit-free riding method in some cities. The ambition behind this is to sprint the top two in the market. Zhou Wei told Zinc Finance that the effect is very good. During that period, the Ubay App could grow hundreds of thousands of users a day.
But the market has changed very rapidly, and with the launch of ofo and Mobai, and the colorful shared bikes on the streets, the competition has become extremely fierce. Zhou Wei remembers that in the late weekend, there was a bicycle, sometimes a car, no one rides a day.
In order to grab users, Yubai also started the process of burning money, issuing free riding vouchers, monthly cards for a few dollars, quarter cards, annual cards, etc. Zhou Wei revealed that it was subsidized for one month and probably burned tens of millions. “In that period, there was no revenue at all, and pure money was burned.” However, the growth in user volume was still slower and slower until the summer of the 17th, the growth was basically stagnant. There is not much cash left on the books.
In the summer of 2017, ofo has already raised funds to the E round and received $700 million; the Moby E round also has $600 million. The head has been burned out by capital, the capital accumulation effect is obvious, and the remaining players have become difficult to finance.
Yubai crazy looking for investment, Zhou Hao remembers to find more than one hundred institutions, “I can find what I can find, no investor has enough funds to support this war.”
The process of self-hematopoiesis is also extremely difficult.
Zhou Wei mentioned that Yubai has long found that excessive competition has destroyed the business model of riding expenses to achieve profitability.
various bicycles on the street
Ubay has been seeking commercialization from the first half of 2017 and has made a lot of attempts. And online e-commerce, and financial companies to cooperate, in the local car sales advertising, as well as some local businesses to do joint business activities, all kinds of paths have been tried.
“All ended in failure, the cooperation effect is particularly poor.” Zhou Wei said. The user just uses the bicycle app as a relatively simple and fast tool, which is easy to use, and the usage time is very short, and basically does not stay on the tool for a long time. Without stopping, it is difficult for companies to realize, whether it is advertising or e-commerce.
In the situation of financing and business realization, Zhou Hao also knows that Yubai has not had much chance of living. He watched the company change from thousands to hundreds of people, and finally dozens of people, along with the team. Disbanded, he finally chose to leave. “The bicycle is there, people are gone, no one recycles.” Youba has already withdrawn from the domestic market and expanded to overseas markets.
In retrospect, Zhou Wei lamented that the speed of financing and the level of madness, the shared bicycle field is unprecedented in the history of Chinese Internet. Within one year, the entire track has come to an end, and it is completely unexpected.
Reason reasons, he mentioned, “Mobai, ofo is the way to commit suicide, the entire industry will be destroyed, killing the enemy eight hundred self-destruction, and excessive competition has also raised the threshold of profit, if A city maintains a reasonable number of shared bicycles, such as Beijing’s almost two million vehicles, eachThe frequency of riding a car is eight or ten times, and it is entirely profitable to remove the cost of operation and maintenance. This mode should have been possible.
For the current market environment, he said, “I feel that no matter who big players or small players, whoever lives is uncomfortable. The little players just have no money, and they are the first to withdraw. If the rest of the people can’t change the situation, It’s not good either.”
Small players struggle to survive
As a veteran in the shared cycling industry, Cao Kang has experienced the most insane age of sharing bicycles, and Zhixiang has also received over 100 million yuan in financing.
But the capital quickly gathered in the head of the industry, and the bicycles can only survive on the “reverse” style.
No subsidies, no large doses, no marketing, avoiding competition to reduce losses.
This reduces the cost, but it also determines that its number of users is not high, and the scope and scene of entry are limited.
The cost of riding alone cannot be profitable. As soon as he entered the game, Cao Kang made this judgment.
He told Zinc Finance that shared bicycles are a semi-public product. The overall unit price is very low, but the loss and operating costs are too high, so it is not feasible to rely on riding costs as the main business model.
“Some players’ loss is about 30%, very large. In addition, operation and maintenance can only rely on labor, technology can be positioned, but the maintenance of the car requires a lot of labor costs.” Cao Kang said.
In order to reduce costs, there is not much investment in Zhixiang bicycles. Cao Kang told Zinc Finance that Zhixiang bicycles were only used in Beijing Shahe, and only 5,000 vehicles were put.
The five thousand vehicles are technically remotely controlled to lock the car. Once the user rides over the electronic fence, it will automatically stop. The operation and maintenance personnel only need to find the car around the edge of the defined range.
“Improve frequency, reduce costs, and reduce losses. This is the main three pain points for sharing bicycles.” He mentioned that focusing on scenes and scope is to increase frequency, and vehicles are strictly controlled to reduce losses and costs.
Despite this, Zhixiang Bicycle is still in a loss state for a long time like other bicycle companies. Prior to this, the team had been reduced from the original 400 to 40 or 50.
“To be honest, survival is also very difficult.” Cao Kang said.
If you want to make money, you have to have new ideas. He wants to do body advertising.
Smart bike chart provided by respondent
Cao Kang wants to attract nearby merchants to advertise by low price.
“Our customers are mainly small merchants, there are studios, furniture towns, seafood restaurants, barbecue shops, bicycles are one to three kilometers of circles, and in this circle, the advertising needs of small businesses are indeed there, the body Advertising is expensive, no one wants it, and a dollar is very good to sell.” Cao Kang said.
This is not easy, and the bicycle has quickly encountered difficulties.
Placing advertisements on the body, the cost of replacement is high, the revenue can’t cover the cost, and the advertiser can’t measure the effect.
“We had 3,000 cars at the time, and there were dozens of cooperative merchants, but because they have been losing money, it is impossible to continue.” Cao Kang said.
The new way to enjoy bicycles is to upgrade the body advertisement. At the beginning of 2017, Cao Kang focused on the research and development of body advertising technology. He recruited more than 300 technicians and invested a lot of money to make the wheels into LEDs that can play advertisements. Screen.
According to him, the wheel of the latest generation bicycle of Zhixiang bicycle is composed of 192 lights, the front wheel comes with a small generator, and the rear wheel seat has solar charging.
In the software, merchants can upload images, logos and slogans on their own apps. On the app, the location of the store is displayed. After the user clicks, the video of the store will appear.
The latest generation of the bicycle prototype is provided by the respondent
Cao Kang calculated an account, the operating cost of Zhixiang bicycle is 2.2 yuan / car / day, a bicycle advertising rent of 5 yuan a day is enough to cover the cost.
Cao Kang is desperate in this matter. At present, this advertising vehicle has entered the second round of market testing. The test content includes pricing method, one is Baotian or monthly, and the other is cost per thousand. At the same time, test the price range of the advertisement, the quality of the advertisement display, and the like.
Cao Kang thinks that if this product can be put into batch production and obtained market verification, it can prove that this business model can be established.
But he faces two crises: the funding crisis and policy regulation.
Intelligent bicycles want to rely on this model to attract financing, but the current situation is not very optimistic.
Cao Kang told Zinc Finance that he is currently talking to some investors. At the time of financing, the Zhixiang bicycle can only stop being put into operation. The daily expenditure of nearly 20,000 has made Cao Kang feel pressure.
“We can hold to the end of the year, if the end of the year does not meltWhen it comes to money, it will die. “Cao Kang said.
He is trying to introduce investors to a new generation of advertising vehicles, but the body advertising itself also has regulatory risks. Many cities are forbidden to share bicycle body-mounted advertisements. Cao Kang told Zinc Finance, “I am also worried that Beijing now limits special Strict, we have some space in other cities.”
Cao Kang can only choose to move forward, because only the advertising model can be explored to help Zhixiang get out of the loss. He didn’t choose to raise prices like other bicycles. “Our loss is very low, but even if it is a price increase, it can’t be profitable.”
The latest generation of excellent bicycle body advertising night renderings provided by respondents
In the second half of the shared bicycle, the supervision became more stringent, and the bicycle evaluation system was adopted to determine the number of bicycles of different brands.
Analyst Sun Naiyue believes that policy regulation is to prevent over-delivery and competition, and to make the market more standardized. By regularly checking and scoring shared bicycle companies, it is a future policy trend for companies with low scores to withdraw or reduce vehicle launch.
In the bidding for Internet rental bicycle operators in Guangzhou in 2019, Moby, Harbin and Green Orange obtained quotas, and ofo did not win quotas, which means that ofo will withdraw from the Guangzhou market, in the dual policy and giants. Under the pinch, the knockout of the shared bike is still fierce and cruel.