The price is gradually transparent and standardized

  Sharing economy, there are regulations to go further

  In recent years, the prices of shared consumer services represented by shared bicycles and shared power banks have risen all the way, causing widespread concern in the society.

The State Administration for Market Regulation recently stated that under administrative guidance, eight shared consumer brands operating companies, Haro, Qingju, Meituan, Monster, Xiaodian, Call, Street, and Soudian, are actively rectifying and reforming, achieving results and sharing prices in the consumer sector. The upward trend has been effectively curbed, and the price quotation has gradually become transparent and standardized.

  "There is enough money to buy new ones"

  Mr. Liu, who works for an Internet company in Beijing, takes out his cell phone every day, sweeps a shared bicycle and rides to work or home.

"The company and the place where I live are a certain distance away from the subway station. It's a bit far to walk, and the taxi is too expensive. Shared bicycles have helped a lot." Mr. Liu said.

  When it first started, cycling was basically free.

But in recent years, Mr. Liu’s biggest feeling is: “Occasionally riding a few times has become less and less cost-effective. Sometimes it costs a few yuan to ride a bike. There is no way, but only a monthly or annual card.” Price How is the experience?

Many people couldn't find the car on the way to the unit, and finally saw a car parked on the side of the road. After scanning it, they found that it was unusable.

"Whether we can ride the bike, to some extent, determines whether we go to work on time." Mr. Liu said.

  Nowadays, mobile phones have become a must-have item for everyone to travel, and shopping, eating, and transportation are inseparable from it.

If you use it too much, the power consumption will naturally be faster.

Ms. Wang, who was shopping in a shopping mall in Chaoyang District, Beijing, encountered such a situation.

In fact, she also bought a power bank herself, but if she doesn't travel far, she doesn't usually take it with her.

"Insufficient battery is a common occurrence. Fortunately, there are shared power banks everywhere, or even taking the car home is a problem."

  Ms. Wang told reporters that although shared power banks can alleviate urgent needs, the wave of price increases in recent years are indeed uncomfortable.

The original free time has been cancelled, and the billing standard and billing unit have also been adjusted, from 1 yuan to 3 yuan per hour. "The money for several recharges is enough to buy a new one."

  It is understood that even if the same brand, the charging standards for shared power banks are different in different scenarios, the usage fees of some brands of shared power banks are often higher in popular commercial areas or tourist attractions.

  "Up" sounded everywhere, no more applause

  "In order to compete, the platform often adopts profit-sharing strategies such as'burning money' and subsidies' in the early stage, mainly relying on financial advantages." Chen Wenfeng, a researcher at the Hunan Academy of Social Sciences, believes that after gaining a stable passenger flow and user stickiness, the platform tried to pass Increase prices to meet the business scale and profit targets required by venture capital.

  The original intention of the sharing economy is to fully deploy idle resources to maximize utilization and allow more people to enjoy convenience.

Some experts pointed out that although price increases are an objective demand to some extent, frequent price increases are not what the sharing economy should be, and price increases cannot well solve the problems in the development process of the sharing economy.

In practice, sharing economy companies have encountered multiple problems such as reduced operating costs, chaotic market layout, and disorderly delivery. The key to solving these problems does not lie in blindly increasing prices.

  The "rising" sounded everywhere, but the applause ceased.

Consumers are sensitive to prices.

If prices continue to rise, the consumption habits that have finally been established may slowly disappear.

Xu Zewei, chairman of 91 Technology Group, believes that if the increase is too high and the frequency is too high, the experience and feelings of consumers are ignored, which will eventually lead to the loss of users and damage the development prospects of the industry.

  Industry insiders believe that most of the sharing economy companies that remain in the market after competition are mostly operators with dominant market positions, presenting a unique characteristic.

From a legal perspective, these companies frequently raise prices and may also be suspected of monopoly.

When necessary, relevant departments may intervene in investigating whether the price increase is a monopoly.

  Explore a win-win profit model

  In February of this year, the National Information Center released the "Report on China's Sharing Economy Development (2021)". It is expected that the average annual growth rate of China's sharing economy will remain above 10% in the next five years, and its development prospects are broad.

  In order to ensure the healthy and sustainable development of the sharing economy, government departments have strengthened the supervision of sharing economy enterprises.

In June of this year, in response to price increases such as shared bicycles and shared power banks, the State Administration for Market Regulation required eight shared consumer brand operating companies to rectify within a time limit, clarify pricing rules, strictly implement clear pricing, and regulate market price behavior and competitive behavior.

After rectification and reform, relevant companies further improved the pricing rules and lowered the prices of some cabinets through direct price reductions or lower billing units.

It is reported that in the shared power bank brand, the price of more than 80,000 cabinets of Street Power has been reduced, and the price of thousands of cabinets of Xiaodian, Soudian, Monster, and Meituan have been reduced.

  Industry insiders said that for a long time, how to find a practical business model is the key to the development of the sharing economy, and price increases should not be the only way out for corporate development.

Sharing economy enterprises should return to the origin of the sharing economy, use sharing economy products to develop other secondary products to make profits, explore diversified profit models, and achieve a win-win situation for both enterprises and consumers.

  “Share-economy companies should work harder to optimize supply and iteratively upgrade products and services to expand their own development space.” Guo Liyan, a researcher at the China Institute of Macroeconomics, suggested that companies should provide richer content, more convenient and personalized service supply, and focus on people’s livelihood. The unsatisfied demand for a better life in the field focuses on innovation, and develops new consumer needs by increasing high-quality supply.

  Shi Zhipeng