Not long ago, Xiao Chai wrote such an article "The number of orders dropped by 14.9%, don't you all play online car-hailing......", which sparked heated discussions.
Among the hundreds of comments, there was a voice like this: "It's not that passengers don't take taxis, but that passengers have become ride-hailing drivers"!
It is true that various data show that in the online car-hailing market, more than 100,000 frustrated people join the online car-hailing army every month, and drivers are really saturated, "The average daily revenue of online car-hailing drivers has reached a new low, but this is probably not a nightmare......
But there is also a large amount of diesel that says that everything is rising, and wages are not rising in the era, still taking a taxi? Those who can share bicycles resolutely do not take a taxi
Naturally, behind this point of view, there is also data to support it, indeed, for more than a year, the shared bicycle market is crazy to cut the cake of the four-wheeled travel market
For example, data shows that since 2023, the number of shared bicycle users has increased by about 20% year-on-year, and the riding time has increased by more than 6%, especially in first-tier cities, where the growth rate of riding time and mileage has exceeded double digits.
Translating this data shows that the product of shared bicycles, which originally solved the demand for the last mile, is eating away at the market for online car-hailing with a demand for three kilometers.
This also made Xiao Chai sigh again, it was not the unification or the white elephant that defeated Master Kong, it may be Meituan Takeaway, when the online car-hailing, taxi driver and radish run were competing wildly, they never expected that their cake would be shared by the shared bicycle......
In the face of such changes, players in the bike-sharing market have begun to search one round after another.
I still remember the May Day holiday, after a round of price increases for shared bicycles, "the cost of 1 hour exceeds 0.5L oil prices, and young people can't afford to ride shared bicycles...... according to Xiaochai reported at the time, during the May Day period, the cost of a brand of shared bicycles increased by at least 20%. And roughly calculated, riding a shared bicycle for an hour costs more than half a liter of fuel.
But I never expected that only two months have passed, and there are more and more voices on social media about the price of shared bicycles.
For example, many consumers said that in Guangzhou, Chengdu and other places, the price of shared bicycles has increased again, but this time it is not a direct increase, but a big change in the starting time, that is, it has officially entered the era of 10-minute starting prices.
According to the information provided by netizens, in Chengdu, Guangzhou and other places, many bike-sharing brands have adjusted the starting price from the original "1.5 yuan for 15 minutes" to "1.5 yuan for the first 10 minutes", and "1.8 yuan for the first 10 minutes" on holidays and weekends
Xiaochai is not mistaken, the history of 1.5 yuan in the first 30 minutes is not so long, if you look at it from this point of view, the starting price has tripled in a short period of time!
At the same time, after more than 10 minutes, the billing standard is 1 yuan for 15 minutes, roughly calculated, if you ride a shared bicycle for an hour, it used to cost 4.5 yuan, but now it costs nearly 6 yuan, and it is higher if it is a holiday
Seeing another price increase, the people who eat melons are not calm. "I bought an electric car, and I said goodbye to Ya forever", "In the future, the price of unmanned taxis will increase if there are no competitors".
"Once I rode for 11 minutes, I was stunned when I saw the deduction of 2.5 yuan. I thought I rode an electric car. But my feet seem to be working hard."
Seeing this, Xiaochai probably remembered the shared bicycle a few years ago, less than 1 yuan can be ridden for an hour, and then, the timing price and the starting price, that is even more rhythmic price increase, such as the starting price rose to "2 yuan / 30 minutes", "1.5 yuan / 30 minutes", "1.5 yuan / 15 minutes", and then to "1.5 yuan / 10 minutes".
It's not that the price is more expensive than the gas money, which makes the four-wheeled buses and subways speechless.
Some netizens also said: "This belongs to robbery while the fire is hot", "What about the people who said it had a conscience back then", "It's strange that shared bicycles can lose money, and the operation of capital is really incomprehensible to ordinary people"
"The practice of capital is to monopolize the market at a low price, and then slowly harvest the common people"
"Occupy public roads and make private money" "Like unmanned driving, slowly cut leeks"
Naturally, users are angry because users have memories and bottom lines! In just a few years, sharing bicycles for 6 yuan an hour has become the norm, this boiled frog in warm water, like the membership fee of the video site, "Members can't jump 120 seconds of advertising? iQIYI's warm water scalded frogs to ......."
And don't underestimate the rise of a few cents, from the beginning, the price increase of shared bicycles has exceeded 600% in a few years.
In addition to the price increase of a single ride in warm water boiled frog, many consumers have also repeatedly increased the price of monthly and season cards purchased in order to save money, such as as as as as 2022, several brands have coincidentally increased the price of such "cards".
For example, for one of the brands, the non-discounted price of the 7-day card has been adjusted from 10 yuan to 15 yuan, the non-discounted price of the 30-day card has been adjusted from 25 yuan to 35 yuan, and the non-discounted price of the 90-day card has been adjusted from 75 yuan to 90 yuan; In addition, the undiscounted prices of 7-day cards, 30-day cards and 90-day cards have increased from 10 yuan, 25 yuan and 60 yuan to 15 yuan, 35 yuan and 90 yuan respectively......
At the same time, it is also necessary to know that today's shared bicycle market has gradually entered the era of brand stock, that is, the player pattern is fixed, and the cost of operators in terms of vehicle investment threshold, vehicle investment and customer acquisition is declining on a large scale.
At the same time, according to the huge scale of riding, this time the price increase of one dime or two cents can create a lot of profits for the operator, such as in Beijing alone, the number of rides reached 1.088 billion last year
But it is also such a market with huge demand, and the bike-sharing brands are all complaining, saying that they are losing money, and they have been losing money for ten years, why are they still keen on doing this business?
Of course, compared with the price increase, what makes consumers even more unbearable is that I don't know when the shared bicycle has fallen into the "P-point mystery", that is, it gives users a headache, riding for five minutes, returning the car for half an hour, and it is still unsuccessful, and finally being deducted dozens of yuan in scheduling fees.
I still remember that not long ago, Chen Yinjiang, the most beautiful consumer rights defender, sued a certain bike-sharing brand in court because of this incident, "Why is it so difficult to return the bike? Chen Yinjiang decided to fight a lawsuit with Haro for 1 yuan......
According to Chen Yinjiang, he has encountered such things many times in a row, such as once after scanning a bicycle to reach the destination, he parked the car in the settlement area of the shared bicycle entry bar, but when the car was locked, the system prompted that it was not in the parking range. After many times of refreshing the positioning, I couldn't return the car, and I had to repeatedly look for a parking spot nearby, and I moved for more than ten minutes, but I still couldn't lock it, because there was something, and I had to pay the dispatch fee.
And the second time, it was also this brand of bicycle, after arriving at the destination, it took 20 minutes to find a parking spot, and still did not find a parking spot, and had to pay the dispatch fee again
What makes Chen Yinjiang even more incomprehensible is that it takes only five minutes to really ride, but the time spent looking for "P point" is also recorded in the riding time, that is, the original five minutes, that is, the price of the starting fee, plus repeatedly moving to find P point, it is also included in the time billing, and more importantly, after tossing for 20 minutes, I still don't find P point, and I have to pay the dispatch fee
You can think about this process and scene, no matter how good the mood is, people can be rough in an instant, especially when encountering heavy rain and high temperatures...... Naturally, the scheduling fee is from one or two yuan, to a dozen yuan, and then to dozens of yuan......
In fact, it is clear that it is at point P, but it is not possible to pay off the car, which seems to have become the most headache for users to ride shared bicycles, and on a third-party complaint platform, there are more than 10,000 complaint records about the difficulty of locking various shared bicycles
Among them, "the parking positioning is not accurate", "the positioning fails, it is useless to refresh it several times, and you can only pay the dispatch fee", "I obviously put the shared bicycle in the bicycle parking area, but I said that I parked outside the management area"...... of complaints are also the hardest hit areas.
"How miserable is this, I stood in the bike-sharing position, I couldn't pay the car, and it kept showing that it was not a parking space, from 16 meters away to one meter away, it was the same point, and finally it took half an hour to finally return the car......
As for the problem of being at point P, but showing that it is not at point P, many platforms responded to this because of the positioning drift problem caused by technology
Then the question comes, the technical problem is obviously the problem of the platform, why waste the user's time, toss the user crazy, and finally collect the consumer's money?
At the beginning, shared bicycles could be parked anywhere, and consumers also took a fancy to this convenience, but now wherever they go, they have to look for "P points"? And, when I got to point P, I couldn't pay the car back.
So can consumers doubt that there are suddenly so many more P points, coupled with the so-called positioning drift, will the bicycle operator be intentional? Because in this way, not only can you earn a scheduling fee that does not need to be dispatched by operation and maintenance personnel, but also earn a user's riding time fee!
This is really a lot of money, because for the current bike-sharing market, perhaps the so-called user experience does not seem to be so important......
The price increase and the inexplicable mystery of the "P point" can be said that the freedom of this generation of young people to share bicycles will be gone, which is enough to see the greed and unscrupulous means of capital
It is true that the price increase in disguise for many times in a year may also be the embodiment of the fearlessness of the bike-sharing brands, after all, as long as the user cost does not catch up with the online car-hailing, they seem to have a lot of room for price increases, and can figure out a variety of harvesting routines
Nowadays, as mentioned above, because of macro factors, more and more people will never take a taxi because of the cost of travel, and those who can share bicycles will never take a taxi, which undoubtedly creates a huge unexpected dividend for the shared bicycle market. ‘
In the face of dividends, the search of shared bicycle brands is somewhat impatient, so if it continues to rise like this, do you really have to have a battery car?
Maybe it's not so simple to have a battery car in your hands, which can't help but remind Xiaochai of the news he watched a few days ago - the user was fined for riding an unlicensed shared motorcycle......
The unlicensed motorcycles of capital can be put on the market without thresholds and legally, and they can operate and make a lot of money, but the responsibility of the unlicensed motorcycle is to be paid by the consumer, and the price is also paid by the consumer......
This seems to be similar to the continuous loss of shared bicycle brands and their own positioning is not allowed to make consumers pay, which is the same thing, seconds!
Shigowski ©️
Author|Xiao Chai No. 2
Edited by Tan Song