Starting from March 21, the starting price of blue bike will be changed from $1 for 30 minutes to $1 for 15 minutes, with an additional $0.5 for every 15 minutes. In other words, the cost of an hour's riding is about 2.5 yuan. Do you think you can accept such a price?
As a result, the one hour riding fee of Xiaolan bike is 2.5 yuan, which makes it the most expensive bike sharing, while that of Mobai, ofo and hello bike is less than 2 yuan. Didi customer service said that the price increase is only for Beijing, other regions will not be affected. Industry insiders believe that as the competition of bike sharing turns to the competition of offline transportation and user experience, it may be only a matter of time before the price is raised, because neither didi nor meituan can tolerate the continuous loss of bike business.
'Xiaolan, the best cyclist, is out of business.'
Little blue bike used to be an ambitious latecomer in the field of bike sharing. It was established in October 2016, and completed the round a financing of RMB 400 million two months later, with a valuation of RMB 1 billion. But at that time, no one thought that after this financing, Xiaolan could never get other funds.
In March 2017, bluebike entered the Beijing market. At this time, ofo and Mobai have completed five rounds of financing, and have already started a large-scale horse racing enclosure movement.
The biggest magic weapon of little blue bike is "good riding". The little blue bike, which is separated from the beast riding, has the best riding experience in the industry: variable gear, light weight, electronic lock that can be opened in three seconds, etc., which not only wins the favor of users, but also makes it occupy the top position in the second echelon. Even after a long time, some users remember that the best little blue bike went out of business.
Li Gang, CEO of bluebike, has repeatedly said that a good riding experience is the most important thing. 'the first turning point of bike sharing is determined by the product. Players who ignore the durability of the product in order to save costs will pay a corresponding price. 'so as ofo and Moby speed up the launch of their vehicles, little blue bike is on the opposite path.
From March to may 2017, bluebike released the first domestic shared bike bluegogo pro and the upgraded versions of pro2 and pro2. The new car is equipped with a central control screen, which aims to create the world's largest advertising media platform through advertising. '
It is estimated that the cost of Xiaolan bicycle is about 2000 yuan, and the addition of the central control screen further increases the cost. The cost problem has hindered the mass production and launch of new models. Coupled with the impact of the policy of 'banning new cars', the' advertising media platform 'on which little blue bike had high hopes has been shattered.
In 2017, Mobai and ofo launched tens of millions of bicycles, and jointly occupied 90% of the market share, while the second echelon of Xiaolan launched only 700000 bicycles.
Little blue bike, which has been unable to negotiate round B financing, is in short supply of funds. Since the second half of 2017, there have been frequent negative news about the debt collection by suppliers and the difficulty in refunding the user's deposit. As of October 30, 2017, there were 2810 complaints about the refund of deposit of Xiaolan bicycle in China, and the settlement rate was only 20.5%.
On the evening of November 16, 2017, Li Gang, the founder of bluebike, issued an open letter, admitting that the company had encountered serious financial problems and was unable to operate.
Xiao Lan's Resurrection
Little blue bike fell down, but the trouble remained.
On January 9, 2018, Didi travel and Xiaolan bike announced that Xiaolan bike will be trusted to Didi, and users can ride Xiaolan bike without deposit in didi app. As for the deposit of Xiaolan bicycle, the solution given by Xiaolan and didi is to convert 199 yuan deposit into equivalent didi bicycle coupon and travel coupon.
Didi announcement
Many users do not pay for this, and think that the deposit is forcibly converted into coupons, which is suspected of infringing the rights and interests of users. Industry insiders said that if users choose the conversion scheme, the claims will be offset, there is no legal risk. "If the user does not choose, he has the right to continue to claim the creditor's rights from Xiaolan company and ask for the refund of the deposit and the recharge. '
In April 2018, users also took didi and bluebike to court. The 15 plaintiffs from many places in China believe that the trusteeship agreement signed by the two defendants only agreed on rights and did not assume obligations, and there was a suspicion of maliciously evading debts such as deposit refund, which in essence damaged the legitimate interests of the plaintiffs and other users.
However, Xiaolan still needs to solve the problem of suppliers' arrears.
According to media estimates, when Xiaolan bicycle went bankrupt, it owed 200 million yuan to suppliers, involving more than 70 suppliers. Tianyan data show that Tianjin Luding Technology Co., Ltd., the operator of Xiaolan bicycle, has 50 pieces of risk information, including 19 lawsuits, most of which are filed by suppliers.
Price increase is the only way for bike sharing?
In fact, the price rise of little blue bike is only a microcosm of the rent rise of bike sharing industry.
In September 2016, the initial price of Moby and ofo's bicycles was 30 minutes / 0.5 yuan. With the launch of many other models, the price of shared bicycles, including Xiaolan bicycle, was adjusted from 30 minutes / yuan. At the same time, the once large-scale promotional activities such as the 1 yuan monthly card in the bicycle sharing industry have also gradually withdrawn, and the monthly card price has recovered to 20 yuan / month.
Didi customer service said that the price increase is only for Beijing, other regions will not be affected, and other bike sharing brands have not followed the price increase.
Ofo and Mobai have not made profits at present. The scale of deposit to be refunded by ofo is between 1 billion and 2 billion yuan. According to the financial report of meituan in 2018, Mobai's bicycle business has suffered a loss of 4.55 billion yuan from its acquisition in April to the end of the year.
Industry insiders believe that as the competition of bike sharing turns to the competition of offline transportation and user experience, it may be only a matter of time before the price is raised, because neither didi nor meituan can tolerate the continuous loss of bike business.
But it's not out of reach to make money only by riding rent. On October 24, 2018, Yang Lei, CEO of Hello travel, made an account when he attended the public activity: the operation and maintenance cost of each car of Hello bike is more than 30 cents, the depreciation cost is 60 cents, and the average daily income of the car has exceeded 1 yuan. Therefore, the profit of bicycle business can be achieved.
After being acquired by meituan, Moby stopped putting in bicycles, cut expenses and turned to refined operation to seek profits, which also represents a direction.