The price increase of "shared consumption": is it "the leftover is king" or is it to catch up?

　　"Shared consumption" price increase: "The leftover is king" or catch the fish

　　Our newspaper commentators He Xinrong and He Xiyue

　　Recently, people who look forward to "cherry freedom", "lipstick freedom" and "takeaway freedom" suddenly discovered that the starting price of shared bicycles has increased from 0.5 yuan per hour and 1 yuan per hour to 1.5 yuan for half an hour, and the price of bicycles has gradually surpassed "Bus"; the increase of shared charging treasures is even more alarming. It has risen from free or 1 yuan per hour in the previous half an hour to 4 yuan per hour. If it is difficult to return it for a while, it will face a higher daily cost... After the economic format became a part of people's lives, they were caught off guard and severely "cut" users.

　　Under the conditions of a market economy, businesses enjoy full pricing freedom for goods or services that are subject to market-adjusted prices.

However, the prices of some sharing economy products or services have risen sharply recently, which is indeed unreasonable, and there are reasons why netizens have made complaints.

　　Do a simple arithmetic problem to understand why people are so resistant to a few yuan price increase: on major e-commerce platforms, well-known brands of 10,000 mAh power banks can be bought for less than 80 yuan, even You can buy a power bank with a decent capacity for twenty or thirty yuan.

However, if you rent a shared power bank, based on an average of 2 hours of use each time, 10 rentals are enough to buy a branded power bank; if you cannot return it in time due to various circumstances on the same day, you will have to pay an extra fee, which may be more than buying. The next power bank will be more expensive.

　　Behind the repeated price hikes, there is considerable profit margins.

Recently, the share power bank company "Monster Charging" submitted a prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, showing that its revenue in 2020 is as high as 2.809 billion yuan, of which 96.5% comes from the power bank rental business; in 2019, the net profit of "Monster Charging" For 167 million yuan, the net profit margin reached 8.2%.

　　Why are some sharing economy companies able to stand up and raise prices indiscriminately amidst the complaints and opposition from netizens, and even hit Nasdaq with full confidence?

They are not relying on high-precision technology, but using price wars and crazy channel layouts to squeeze out competitors in the Internet economy. In the final analysis, they are still a routine of "burning money to seize the market, and then increasing prices to harvest".

　　As long as you pay a little attention, you can find that whether it is shared bicycles or shared power banks, they have changed from a group of heroes that year to a pattern where a few players dominate the market.

But as soon as the "leftover is king" situation has just formed, relevant companies can't wait to raise their harvesting sickles.

　　Of course, the board cannot be completely hit on the sharing economy format.

Take shared charging treasures as an example. Most popular business districts such as entertainment venues and restaurants are free of charge. Charge a very high percentage of commissions.

These businesses seem to be unaware that sharing power banks can be convenient for consumers, but can actually improve their service levels and customer retention capabilities.

　　Although at the time when digitization is accelerating, charging mobile phones while going out has slowly become a kind of "rigorous demand", but if prices continue to rise, the future outcome of shared power banks is not difficult to speculate: if no new companies enter the market to disrupt the situation, more The low price has once again triggered a "price war". Users can only gradually reduce the frequency of renting power banks and gradually develop the habit of bringing their own power banks out-unless they are in a hurry, they will not rent power banks again.

　　Companies are eager to make money, investors are busy listing, and businesses are happy to increase their income. All parties seem to have benefited, but the consumer habits that have been cultivated with great difficulty are likely to be ruined by relevant stakeholders a little bit. "The leftover is king." "Fishing due to exhaustion will eventually become no "fish" to catch.

　　In early March, five community group buying companies including Orange Heart Optimal were punished by the State Administration of Market Supervision for the reason that improper price behavior disrupted market order.

It is not difficult to see that from taxi-hailing software to community group purchases to all kinds of new forms of sharing economy, only by continuously strengthening supervision and suspending in time when there are bad signs in related industries can we avoid consumers’ just-needs from being exhausted and make the Internet economy new. The format is no longer a "big harvester".