If these enterprises are still focusing on the third tier of shared bikes in a single city, then the "little blue bike", "cool bike" and "Xiaoming bike" that have problems subsequently are all well-known platforms under the orange in this market. Many of them are still ambitious to wait for "overtaking at the corner" in the early stage of operation.
According to the data provided by Zhima credit, the six bike sharing enterprises failed. According to the rough statistics, the user's deposit loss has exceeded 1 billion yuan!
Can't you refund the deposit for business failure?
Some enterprises say that "big deal, one person, one ride home"
Xiaolan bicycle has always regarded itself as a "good experience and fine management". Before that, some employees first released a message on a workplace social platform, saying that Xiaolan bicycle announced its dissolution and defaulted on employees' wages. Subsequently, from time to time, the company's staff in the circle of friends resell office furniture news came out. Recently, the company's headquarters in Beijing has been empty.
In the middle of this month, the reporter visited the headquarters of Kuqi bicycle in Block B, Wanda Plaza, Tongzhou District, Beijing, and saw a growing line of people who came to refund the deposit. Because the deposit is hard to return, even gave birth to the scalper who handles the refund.
Kuqicycling later announced that byke technology will replace the management and operation and maintenance of the operation of kuqicycling, but not including debt. Beijing's office will suspend the deposit refund business. Users need to go to the company located in Chengdu to refund the deposit. If it is not convenient to go to Chengdu, you need to contact the three dedicated lines of deposit refund. But many times, the line is busy.
Reporters found that in addition to the large amount of money owed to suppliers, the focus of the problem is on the return of user deposits. A user of Xiaolan bicycle said that he applied for a refund as early as October 15, but there was no action for more than a month, and even the refund information in the app disappeared for no reason.
The app stops updating and the server goes offline. If consumers want to return the deposit, they have to go to the company's headquarters or go online to find scalpers. A user in Beijing told reporters that refunding money also needs various verifications. "It's not easy to get money back from the city to Tongzhou. If you don't bring all the certificates, you have to run several times more. Looking for scalpers and worried about being cheated, but also to pay additional fees. '
Faced with the dilemma of refunding the deposit, many companies even put forward the method of car mortgage. Gao Weiwei, former CEO of Kuqi company, once said that the cost of building a Kuqi bicycle is 650 yuan, which can cover a deposit of 298 yuan and "it's not big enough to go home alone".
Enterprise deposit 'special account' is only a general deposit account
Third party supervision
With the birth of bike sharing, the issue of huge deposit has been concerned. Some people familiar with the situation said that most bicycle enterprises did not adopt the third-party deposit method, and there was a phenomenon of misappropriation of deposit to maintain cash flow. Moreover, most of the information and procedures are handled in accordance with the general deposit account opening standards, and the bank is not required to perform the three-party regulatory obligations.
According to the guidance on encouraging and standardizing the development of Internet rental bicycles issued by the Ministry of transport and other ten departments, it is encouraged to provide rental services in the form of free deposit. If an enterprise has collected deposit or prepaid funds, it is required to set up a special account in the registered place, implement the special purpose, improve the return system, and accept the supervision of the competent departments such as transportation and finance. However, from the current situation, most of the single platform enterprises' deposit use, custody and supervision are still in a gray area.
Wei Xing, Deputy Minister of complaint department of Shenzhen consumer committee: at present, there is no third party to supervise this fund. If there is investment failure or financing difficulty in shared bicycles, it is likely to suffer from centralized run by consumers or the failure of the capital chain, which leads to the failure of deposit return.
In fact, the centralized run by consumers in weixingkou may have already appeared. It is said that many users of bicycle platform who are still in operation have begun to apply for refund of deposit intensively due to their concerns about capital safety. Industry insiders are worried that this will bring a new round of 'bicycle' bankruptcy.
Where to ride in the future?
The industry calls for replacing deposit system with credit system
For this reason, the Ministry of transport, the national development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of industry and information technology, the Ministry of public security, the people's Bank of China and other ministries and commissions recently convened the national 17 provinces and the urban transport authorities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to carry out research and Discussion on the promotion of standardizing the policy of sharing bicycles. We call for 'real-time launch of legislation on supervision of shared bicycles by referring to the legislative means of online car Hailing' to become the unanimous voice of the participants.
Wu Chungeng, a spokesman for the Ministry of communications, also said: many enterprises have closed down one after another and it is difficult to withdraw the deposit. All departments are actively taking measures. As for the Ministry of transport, it is to closely track the relevant situation, guide the local competent transport departments to cooperate with the relevant departments, properly handle, and take measures in advance to prevent possible risks. In addition, we will conduct in-depth research with the development and Reform Commission, the people's Bank of China and other departments, systematically analyze the problems in the industry, and study and formulate some supporting policies and measures to protect the interests of consumers and ensure their healthy development.
Where will bike sharing go in the future? In order to prevent the security risk of deposit, it is generally agreed to 'cancel the deposit and encourage the credit system to substitute. '
At present, ofo has been connected to sesame credit and can provide deposit free service for users with certain credit points in 25 cities. Moby recently said it would withdraw from the "deposit free application function based on Credit Points" in Guangzhou.
However, some analysts believe that for some small platforms, it may further accelerate the fracture of the capital chain. Zhu Wei, deputy director of communication law center of China University of political science and law, said that in this process, relevant departments should consider early intervention to prevent consumer rights and interests from being damaged.
Zhu Wei: the second half is definitely a market elimination process. Now colorful shared bikes can't all survive. The government cannot stand by in this kind of market competition. Once the enterprise goes bankrupt, it is too late for consumers to seek help again. The government should keep the bottom line, which is the protection of consumers' rights and interests. Whether the enterprise has confused the deposit with its own funds, whether it can open a separate account according to the requirements, and whether the third-party supervision can enable the transportation department and the financial management department to carry out the audit according to the requirements of the new deal, which needs to move forward.