The emergence of shared bicycles has greatly facilitated people's travel, but at present, the market of shared bicycles has become saturated, and even the situation of more monks than less monks is becoming increasingly clear. Moby and ofo investors are negotiating a merger to end the money burning competition, Bloomberg reported. The talks are still at an early stage and the combined valuation could exceed $4 billion, the report said.
Zhu Xiaohu, an investor in ofo, said at the end of September that although ofo and Moby occupy most of the market share, they still need to invest a lot of money to operate each month. Only a merger of the two is likely to be profitable. Asked about 'who merges who', he said: 'it doesn't matter to capital'.
For bike sharing track, the biggest variable in the near future comes from policy. At present, more than ten cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Wuhan, have suspended the new launch of shared bicycles.
Bike sharing: talk about peace again
In addition to the two "unicorns" captured in the early years, i.e. hungry and Didi, Zhu Xiaohu's latest move was to share the bicycle platform ofo.
Zhu Xiaohu recalled that the original intention of the investment was to find that it and didi are highly complementary. Bicycles are basically used for one to three kilometers, and Didi's travel is more than three kilometers. The two platforms are highly complementary, which completely solves the travel needs of users.
Similar to the o2o industry, ofo also has a strong rival Moby bike, and the two often compete for who is the first. In June, Mobai investors Ma Huateng (Weibo) and Zhu Xiaohu launched a debate in their circle of friends over the issue. The source of the conflict comes from a report from iResearch. According to the report, in May 2017, there were nearly 32 million new active users in the bike sharing industry, including 62.72 million monthly active users in ofo and 58.38 million monthly active users in Moby.
Zhu Xiaohu saw the report and forwarded it to his friends' circle, with comments saying that it was' consistent with the actual number of people on the street '. Ma Huateng questioned, saying in the message that in wechat payment data, Moby is more than twice as high, and that the future value and potential of smart lock and non smart lock are totally different. Zhu Xiaohu replied, "ofo is now also a smart lock. The best cost-effective solution is a good one.". '
Ma Huateng is not satisfied with the intelligent lock of ofo. He thinks that two-way communication is necessary. A functional machine with high cost performance is also vulnerable to the wave of intelligence.
At present, ofo has also begun to upgrade and upgrade. Is it a compromise to launch a bicycle with a smart lock? Zhu Xiaohu said frankly that he was calculating the best plan. Whether a solution can be launched depends on whether its cost performance is optimal. "To be honest, we have always tried, and we also want to make the best solution at low cost. I think it's an inevitable choice. But overall, I think the cost performance ratio is very important.
With more and more capital added, the focus of bike sharing began to shift to the controversy of urban management and market saturation. The entrepreneurial project on the tuyere is also showing the other side that it is not pleasant.
According to public data, as of July 2017, the total number of shared bicycles in China exceeded 16 million, with a user scale of 106 million. Because the platforms are mainly launched in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other big cities, leading to saturation of some cities' market, the management department urgently stopped the new platform launch. Reasons for suspension include over delivery, disorderly stop and disorderly release, neglect of management, etc.
For this problem, each platform did not provide a clear solution. Zhu Xiaohu thinks this is a short-term problem. 'the competition will start with over investment, which will definitely be optimized in the long run. Capital is all about efficiency, and the time for efficiency will be shorter and shorter. It is estimated that it will be optimized within 6-10 months. '
He pointedly pointed out that sharing bicycles can only be scored if they are overdone, but not if they are overdone. 'you want to talk about peace on the March 8th line, which is impossible. Only when we reach the 37th and 36th lines can we talk about peace. If we don't overdo it, we will certainly not sit down and talk about it. '
However, seeing that the domestic market is saturated, Moby and ofo have both set out to sea and started to layout markets in Europe, the United States and Japan. According to Zhu Xiaohu, investing in Xiaohuang cars in foreign markets is only a supplement, not a core, which is still in China's domestic market. 'overseas income is higher and there are many ways to make money. Foreign markets have always paid attention to rules and order, and there are not as many people in need of operation as there are in China. '