Since the removal of the Didi APP in July last year, online ride-hailing platforms have sprung up, setting off a money-burning subsidy war to try to re-divide the market share. In the capital market, it has also ushered in a new growth cycle of online car investment and financing. Having money means having a chance? However, the most important thing before the development of online ride-hailing platforms is how to operate in compliance under increasingly strict supervision...
Online ride-hailing is back
The industry landscape is changing?
A "safety review" six months ago has revived the otherwise calm ride-hailing industry.
Since Didi was jointly investigated by seven departments in July 2021, the relevant APP was removed from the shelves and could not provide services for new users, and the second-tier platform seemed to see hope, rising up together, fighting endlessly, and striving to redefine the market map.
Cao Cao Travel, T3 Travel and other online ride-hailing platforms launched various preferential activities, and accelerated the pace of expansion, AutoNavi Taxi put a large number of advertisements, continuing to increase exposure. At the right time, on the day didi was removed, Meituan Taxi was re-launched in major app stores after two years, which also means that Meituan has "made a comeback" and grabbed the cake of the online ride-hailing market.
Almost all platforms are struggling to "pull new robberies", aiming at this once-in-a-lifetime "window period", for a time, as if to see the appearance of the "burning money war" of online ride-hailing.
The data shows that in July 2021, in terms of order volume, Caocao Travel increased by 32.2% month-on-month, Ruqi Travel increased by 63.7% month-on-month, Shouqi Ride-hailing increased by 40.8% month-on-month, Xiangdao Travel order volume increased by 23.1% month-on-month, and Shenzhou Chauffeur-driven increased by 21% month-on-month. In addition, there were 17 ride-hailing platforms with more than 300,000 orders in July, an increase of 5 compared with June.
The "burning money subsidy" war has re-emerged, and the order volume of many online ride-hailing platforms has increased, and new platforms have also emerged in the past six months. According to the statistics of the national online ride-hailing regulatory information exchange platform, as of June 30, 2021, a total of 236 online ride-hailing platform companies across the country have obtained business licenses for online ride-hailing platforms, and as of January 31, 2021, the number of online ride-hailing platform companies that have obtained business licenses for online ride-hailing platforms has reached 260.
The "old" platform is waiting for the opportunity, and the new platform is rushing in, but has the market pattern really been reshaped? Zhang Xiang, a senior automotive industry analyst, believes that after Didi was investigated, the pattern of the entire online ride-hailing market has not undergone major changes, only minor adjustments. He said that Didi has accumulated a large number of users in the early stage, although the APP can not be listed now, but it has not affected the users who have previously downloaded the APP, its business is still operating as usual, and there is no new giant that can replace its head position.
Chen Liteng, an analyst at the E-commerce Research Center of the Online Economic Society, said that at present, the online ride-hailing industry presents a market pattern in which Didi's behavior is "one super", T3 travel, Cao Cao travel, Shouqi ride-hailing, Xiangdao travel, Dida travel, Hello travel, etc. are "how strong", and hundreds of small and medium-sized platforms are "a hundred flowers blooming".
The industry has regained the favor of capital
The second echelon platform has continuous financing
Although the pattern of the online ride-hailing market has not shown major changes, capital has regained confidence, and the industry investment and financing events have occurred frequently, ushering in a new growth cycle.
From the perspective of the financing of the online ride-hailing track, from 2014 to 2017, the mainland online car industry had a financing boom, and the amount of financing began to decline after 2018, while in 2020, the scale of financing in the industry affected by the epidemic was greatly reduced and fell to the bottom. Starting in the second half of 2021, industry financing events and amounts have ushered in growth again, and capital has entered the market on a large scale.
According to the incomplete statistics of Aoyi News, in 2021, there were 16 financing incidents in the online ride-hailing industry, and the disclosed financing amount exceeded 12 billion, of which Cao Cao Travel and T3 Travel ushered in huge financing, and Haro Travel received 2 financings during the year.
On September 6, Cao Cao Chuxing announced the completion of a Series B financing of RMB3.8 billion. It has been three and a half years since the last Series A financing of 1 billion yuan.
On October 26, T3 Travel announced the completion of the A round of financing, which amounted to 7.7 billion yuan, led by the CITIC Consortium, which is the largest single financing in China since 2018.
On November 9, Hello Travel announced the completion of a new round of financing contracts involving $280 million, including Ant Group and Alibaba. This is the second financing received by Hello Travel since 2021, after In March, Haro Travel completed a financing of US$234 million, invested by CATL.
On November 23, GAC Group announced that its associated company Ruqi Chuxing intends to carry out financing with a scale of about 1 billion yuan. According to the announcement, in order to make full use of the power of external capital to achieve resource synergy and sustained and steady development, guangzhou automobile industry group, the controlling shareholder, invested 350 million yuan to participate in this financing.
It can be seen that when the opportunity comes, the money comes. In this new round of online ride-hailing war, the "second echelon" platform has replenished the funds "ammunition" and strived to win more possibilities. Frequent financing events show that capital still has confidence in the development of the ride-hailing industry.
For example, Lu Zhidong, chairman of Xiangcheng Financial Holdings, said in response to why he invested in Cao Cao Travel, the focus of investment is to choose the track, travel is just needed, the Internet travel industry does not have absolute exclusivity, whether it is a short-term window or long-term competition, there is still room.
With the frequent occurrence of financing events in the industry, the competition in the online car market may become more intense, but for the platform, the most urgent need to solve at present is the compliance problem.
Enter the era of "compliance"
Promote the development of industry norms and healthy competition
"During the rectification period of Didi Chuxing's removal, other ride-hailing platforms accelerated their 'siege of the city and land', but fierce competition also led to various problems emerging in an endless stream." Chen Liteng believes that all online ride-hailing platforms should avoid "sacrificing their roots and ending" when competing for market share, and need to make sufficient efforts in compliance and user service experience.
Compliance operation has always been an old topic of debate in the online ride-hailing industry. In order to seize the market and reduce operating costs, many online ride-hailing platforms have lowered the entry threshold and used a large number of vehicles and drivers that do not meet the norms, but this is obviously not conducive to the healthy development of the industry, and it is irresponsible to drivers, passengers and the masses.
According to the statistics of the national online ride-hailing regulatory information interaction platform, there are even platforms that have a compliance rate of 16.12% for monthly orders. Problems such as illegal operation of the platform, large safety hazards, proportional and opaque prices, and drivers' unlicensed "sports cars" have emerged one after another, which has put forward new challenges to the regulatory level.
The Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Reservation Taxi Business Services, issued in 2016, stipulates that online ride-hailing vehicles need "three complete certificates" to be on the road, that is, "the platform operates with a license, the vehicle carries passengers with a license, and the driver holds a certificate to work". In September 2021, the Ministry of Transport issued the Notice on Maintaining the Order of the Fair Competition Market and Accelerating the Compliance of Online Ride-hailing, requiring local transportation authorities to supervise and urge e-hailing platform companies to operate in accordance with laws and regulations and accelerate the compliance process of e-hailing.
At present, promoting the compliance of online ride-hailing has become one of the focuses of the work of many urban transportation departments, and many places have clearly proposed to clear the "three certificates" of incomplete online ride-hailing. At this point, the compliance of online ride-hailing has become a problem that every online ride-hailing company cannot escape and cannot delay.
However, in the investigation, the Aoyi Compliance Research Institute found that since the regulatory authorities urged the platform to accelerate the compliance process, in recent months, although the compliance operation of the online ride-hailing platform has made a lot of progress, it is still relatively common for the "three certificates" specification not to meet the standards. Even at the risk of being fined by the regulator, there are still many online ride-hailing platforms that send orders to unlicensed drivers and unlicensed vehicles. The reporter once contacted the relevant staff of multiple online ride-hailing platforms in the form of secret visits on the grounds of registering as an online ride-hailing driver, and many staff members told reporters, "You can go to work first and get an online ride-hailing driver's license within a month."
Judging from the basic operation of the online ride-hailing industry in January 2022 released by the Ministry of Transport a few days ago, among the 17 online ride-hailing platforms with orders of more than 300,000 orders, there are still 5 order compliance rates below 60%, namely Wanshun Taxi, Bangbangxing, Meituan Taxi, Didi Chuxing and Huaxiao Pig Travel. It can be seen that many online ride-hailing platforms are quite weak in accelerating compliance governance, and the compliance rate still needs to be improved, which is also the key to the future development of the industry.
In 2022, the regulatory authorities will continue to strengthen their supervision of online ride-hailing platforms. On the morning of January 20, the Office of the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference on the Coordinated Supervision of New Transportation Formats interviewed four Internet road freight platform companies such as Manbang, Lala, Didi Freight, and Fast Dog Taxi, and reminded four online ride-hailing platform companies, including Didi Chuxing, CaoCao Chuxing, T3 Travel, and Meituan Travel. The interview reminds that each platform enterprise must not only face up to its own problems, but also effectively regulate the business behavior of platform companies and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the driver group.
On February 14, according to the official news of the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and other 8 departments jointly revised and issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Work Related to the Joint Supervision of the Whole Chain of the Online Reservation Taxi Industry Before and After the Event", which improved the joint supervision of the whole chain before and after the event of multiple departments, and refined the disposal measures and operation processes to facilitate the operation and implementation of relevant departments at all levels.
It is foreseeable that the industry is accelerating into the era of "compliance" operation, and in the future, with the continuous deepening of compliance requirements, the focus of the development of online ride-hailing platforms will be the norms around compliance issues.
Under strong supervision, the cost of operating the online ride-hailing platform will increase, and at the same time, the difficulty of expanding the scale of the platform and increasing the transportation capacity will also increase, but this is also the only way for the development of industry norms and healthy competition. How to win more market share under the test of supervision is a problem that online ride-hailing platforms need to think carefully about.
Producer: Aoyi Compliance Research Institute
Planner: Xie Yanxia
Moderator: Xie Jiangtao Gao Chunming
Coordinator: Lu Ruoqing
Executive: Lu Ruoqing Lin Sisi Feng Xiaohui
Text: Lin Sisi Lu Ruoqing
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