The State Administration of Market Supervision takes action
Shared charging treasure is too expensive or a thing of the past?
Yangcheng Evening News reporter Shen Zhao
On August 30, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a message that under the administrative guidance of the State Administration for Market Regulation, 8 shared consumer brands including Haro, Green Orange, Meituan, Monster, Xiaodian, Incoming, Street, and Soudian, etc. Operating companies have actively rectified and reformed and achieved results. The price increase in the shared consumer sector has been effectively curbed, and marked prices have gradually become transparent and standardized.
The reporter noted that in the past, when it comes to sharing power banks, "expensive" and "profiteering" are the first impressions of consumers.
But on the other hand, the low net profit and the crying of “poorness” by enterprises have indeed occurred in this industry.
Why can't companies make money in such a "great-profit" industry, and whose pockets does the consumer's money go into?
Entrance fees and distribution costs are high, and it is difficult for companies to make money
Not long ago, Monster Charging, the first share of the charging bank, announced its second quarter 2021 financial report.
The financial report showed that its operating income in the second quarter was 972.4 million yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 52.9%, and it was profitable for five consecutive quarters.
However, the net profit of Monster Charging this quarter was RMB 8.2 million, and the net profit margin was only 0.8%.
The monster charging with nearly 1 billion yuan in revenue, why make money and make a lonely?
A closer look at the data is not difficult to find that Monster Charging's sales and marketing expenses in the second quarter of 2021 will be 771 million yuan, accounting for about 79.1% of revenue, a year-on-year increase of 64.6%.
It turns out that at this stage, shared charging treasure companies usually use cooperation with channel vendors or agents to install outlets. Monster charging's "sales and marketing costs" account for nearly 80% of revenue, which also shows that the industry is in a fierce competition for points. stage.
As the head of the industry, the days of charging monsters are already pretty good.
The data shows that the life of another listed company, Xiaodian Technology, is even worse: in 2020, its operating income will be 1.91 billion yuan and a net profit loss of 104 million yuan.
Some people in the industry told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that in addition to the entrance fee, the point-of-sale revenue of shared power bank companies must be shared with merchants.
"60% to 70% is a very common phenomenon. In some extreme cases, merchants have to share 90% of the revenue." The person said that the entrance fee is high, the share is low, and operating costs and labor costs are removed to share the power of the power bank company. Profitability is really difficult.
In this regard, iiMedia Consulting CEO Zhang Yi told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that the high admission fee and high share of shared charging treasure points can not be completely blamed on the merchants. This is mainly caused by the vicious competition within the industry: "Assume that brand A gives The merchant’s admission fee is 50,000 yuan, B will give 100,000 yuan, and C may be willing to give 150,000 yuan.” “You must tie the bell to untie the bell.” Self-discipline in the industry is the key.
In addition, the relevant state departments should also supervise and regulate this situation, and make multiple efforts to solve the problem.
Prices fell slightly and pricing became more reasonable
It is understood that on June 3 this year, the Price Supervision and Competition Bureau of the State Administration of Market Supervision, together with the Anti-Monopoly Bureau and the Network Supervision Department, held an administrative guidance meeting to request Hello, Green Orange, Meituan, Monster, Small Phone, Call, Street, and Search. Eight shared consumer brand operating companies including electricity, rectified within a time limit, clarified pricing rules, strictly implemented clearly marked prices, and regulated market price behavior and competitive behavior.
The six shared power bank brands participating in the rectification have a total of 4.26 million cabinets, accounting for about 80% of the market share.
From the results of the rectification, 80,000 cabinets of Street Power have reduced prices, and thousands of cabinets of Xiaodian, Soudian, Monster, and Meituan have reduced prices.
At present, the average price of each brand is 2.2-3.3 yuan/hour, and cabinets of 3 yuan and below per hour account for 69%-96%.
Relatively speaking, the price of cabinets in relatively closed areas such as popular tourist attractions or prosperous business districts is still higher than the average price.
23 of the 88 shared power bank merchants in the West Lake Scenic Area of Hangzhou have reduced their prices, and the highest price has dropped from 10 yuan/hour to 8 yuan/hour.
When the reporter tested the price of shared power banks through multiple small programs on August 31, he found that in Guangzhou, most shared power banks were relatively cheap.
Take the merchants in Zhujiang New Town as an example. The prices of charging treasures of brands such as Monster, Xiaodian, Street Power are all 2-3 yuan, and there are few merchants priced more than 3 yuan.
In addition, the prices in Huangpu, Haizhu, Yuexiu and other commercial districts are basically the same.
Zhang Yi said that in ordinary consumption scenarios, the pricing of shared power banks is relatively reasonable.
The high-priced points mainly exist in bars, star hotels, and tourist attractions.
In these scenarios, merchants and consumers have just needed the use of shared power banks and "have no choice", so the pricing will be higher than other scenarios.
Is the slow charging of the shared power bank suspected to be subjective and deliberate?
The reporter noticed that, in addition to the price issues dealt with, the old and slow charging of shared power bank products is particularly concerned by consumers: "It is not as good as one hour to charge my own power bank for two hours." "Sometimes I think The enterprise is deliberate."
Zhang Yi said that the current charging efficiency of shared power banks on the market is lower than the average level of self-use power banks. Sharing the technical reserves of power bank companies can completely solve this problem. Consumers believe that there are subjective and deliberate elements on the corporate side and not to upgrade the charging power of the power bank. This is a reasonable guess and the direction that the market supervision department should investigate.