Our reporter Li Guo
Under the pressure of the huge cost of car purchase and use, the "on-call" and "flexible and convenient" online car-hailing has become a new mode of travel emerging today.
Thanks to the advantages of low cost, no parking, and comfortable ride, the domestic online car-hailing market has quietly become a new blue ocean with great potential.
A few days ago, Dazhong Transportation announced that Volkswagen Travel plans to increase its capital and shares to introduce investor Alibaba. A total of 40 million yuan will be invested in Dazhong Travel in two phases, with a shareholding ratio of 10%.
Prior to this, Alibaba and Ant Group had just invested $280 million in Harbin Travel.
Within a month, Alibaba invested in two online car-hailing platforms, which also means that the online car-hailing market, which has been silent for two years, has regained the favor of capital.
Recently, the "National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline" issued by the State Council proposes to promote the coordinated development of smart connected cars and smart cities, and build a smart travel platform based on a city information model platform that integrates city dynamic and static data.
This will be a new opportunity and a major benefit for the online car-hailing market to break out again.
How to find a balance between compliance and scale
In recent years, the continuous growth of urban population has brought great pressure to transportation, and the emergence of new transportation modes is an inevitable trend.
Data shows that 52.67% of online ride-hailing users are shopping and playing, and more than four are commuting to and from get off work.
40.96% of users use it weekly, while 30.46% of users use it irregularly and only use online car-hailing when they need it.
According to data from the Ministry of Transport, currently, nearly 250 online ride-hailing platform companies have obtained operating permits, with an average daily order volume of about 21 million orders.
Didi's sudden crisis has forcibly opened a new gap in the already "dominant" Chinese online car-hailing market.
With the drop of Didi in July, waist players once again have the opportunity to compete for users, and the growth rate of Cao Cao's travel and T3 travel has increased significantly.
Data shows that by the end of the third quarter of this year, Cao Cao has over 11 million monthly active users for travel, a year-on-year growth rate of 62.5%; T3 monthly active users for travel are 9.867 million, an increase of 5.607 million from the end of 2020.
Industry experts said that if the first war of the online car-hailing industry relied on simple and rude subsidies, then this tactic has been blocked by its own conditions and policies, and the next breakthrough may be "compliance."
The purpose of competition is to survive, but there is another ultimate question for online car-hailing platforms: Where is the profit point?
According to T3 Travel CEO Cui Dayong's calculations, it is a balance point for the online car-hailing platform to reach an average of 5 million orders per day. On this scale, costs and revenue can be equalized, and an average of 10 million orders per day can reach the profit point.
Didi’s daily orders reached 30 million orders at its peak, and it has still lost 35.3 billion yuan in the past three years. This shows that the online car-hailing platform is difficult to make profits.
The high operation and maintenance costs paid for compliance will only become heavier due to the increase in scale.
Coupled with the epidemic that has lasted for nearly two years, not only is it still affecting people's way of travel, but it has also magnified the pattern and difficulties of the entire online car-hailing market. The contradiction between the "burning money war" and the difficulty in obtaining customers and profit has intensified.
At the same time, with the increase in policies and the tightening of supervision, how to find a balance between profitability and sustainable development has gradually become an important strategic consideration for all online car-hailing companies.
Online ride-hailing rivers and lakes concentrated on staged capital drama
On September 6, Cao Cao Travel announced the completion of Series B financing with an amount of 3.8 billion yuan.
This round of financing is the first domestic equity investment that an online car-hailing company has obtained this year.
Immediately afterwards, T3 Travel completed a new round of strategic financing on September 23.
At this time, it has been two years and four months since its last round of financing (the 2019 angel round).
This financing amounted to 7.7 billion yuan, which is also the largest single domestic financing that online car-hailing brands have obtained from 2018 to the present.
Two successive rounds of financing within a month have once again attracted attention to the online car-hailing industry, which seems to be gradually cooling down.
After Didi, Cao Cao Travel and T3 are regarded as the most powerful players in the car-hailing industry.
The two companies have large OEM backgrounds. Cao Cao's travel is backed by the Geely system, while T3 is jointly built by China's FAW, Dongfeng Motor, and Chongqing Changan.
There are opinions in the industry that Cao Cao, T3, Meituan, and AutoNavi will dominate the next stage of competition in the online car-hailing industry.
Data shows that there are currently more than 2,000 companies engaged in online car-hailing related businesses in China, and more than half of them have been established in the past five years.
In 2017 alone, it increased by more than 400.
Among them, 330 companies have had financing incidents.
In 2018, the financing amount of my country's online car-hailing industry reached its peak. There were 15 financing incidents, and the total financing amount was 62.75 billion yuan.
After 2018, my country's online car-hailing industry has encountered a cold, and the amount of financing has dropped significantly.
"Recently, Cao Cao Travel and T3 Travel have successively announced financing, indicating that the capital market continues to be optimistic about online car-hailing travel." He Qi, a senior analyst in the travel industry of Analysys, said that from the perspective of financing scale, capital is gathering on top platforms. The too effect began to appear.
Compared with Didi and Kuaidi’s “two-horse race” five years ago, today’s online car-hailing market is no longer a choice. The game and competition of diversified forces also makes the online car-hailing industry full of business unknowns.
Who will be the king in the second half of online car-hailing
From the perspective of the urban penetration rate of China's online car-hailing, the penetration rate of online car-hailing in first-tier cities is the highest, reaching 50.3%, and the penetration rate in the new first-tier cities is 20.3%, while the penetration rate in second-tier and lower cities is low and insufficient. 10%.
Ruble, an analyst in the online car-hailing industry, said that with the addition of capital, a new competitive landscape in the online car-hailing industry will surely be driven, which will have a positive and positive impact on the entire industry, and the direct beneficiaries are online car-hailing drivers and passengers.
In fact, the market pain points in the field of online car-hailing are still the same-drivers want higher income, more detailed operations, and fairer rewards and punishments; while users demand more affordable prices, more transparent pricing systems, and safe and reliable services. .
However, while the order volume has grown substantially, problems such as driver refusal to load, detours, and harassment have emerged from time to time.
On the driver's side, some drivers complained online that there were unreasonable deductions on platforms.
According to Tianyan Check data, as of now, more than 600 online car-hailing-related companies have experienced operating abnormalities, and more than 200 have been subject to administrative penalties.
"T3 travel will increase investment in user service improvement, product innovation, technology research and development, autonomous driving, etc., and continue to provide safe, convenient, and high-quality travel services to enhance drivers' professional well-being, sense of identity, and sense of acquisition." Cui Dayong said that at present, T3 Mobility has launched five major product lines: Benefit, Quick Enjoy, Exclusive, Exclusive, and Xinxiang Rental. It has also released a driver-exclusive care plan and upgraded the "one-click ride-hailing".
"As an important part of the urban transportation system, the online car-hailing industry is ushering in new development opportunities brought about by smart travel and smart transportation." said Mo Yuanming, chief researcher of Chongqing Jingyu Provincial Situation and Development Planning Research Institute. Online car-hailing travel, forming a "manufacturing + travel" online car-hailing model has become a general trend.
In the process of developing and promoting the new operating model, we should try our best to integrate and retain the advantageous resources of online car-hailing and taxis, so that the new model can better meet the needs of the public.
Not long ago, Wenyuan Zhixing, a self-driving taxi technology company, obtained an online car-hailing operation license issued by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Transportation, becoming the first domestic autonomous driving company with the qualifications to carry out online car-hailing business; With the development strategy of "rural surrounding the city", based on solving the bottleneck problem of rural travel...Online car-hailing can only be achieved by people without us, and people with us. Only with technological innovation and high-quality service quality can we stand out and become a network. A leader in the car-hailing industry.