Yu Yao Xie Yutong

　　On August 6, the topic #Meituanbicycle announced a price increase# was on the hot search on Weibo.

After the price increase, the prices of Meituan bicycle 7-day, 30-day, and 90-day undiscounted riding cards are 15 yuan, 35 yuan, and 90 yuan respectively.

Meituan Bicycle said the price increase was due to "increased hardware and operation and maintenance costs".

　　The Red Star Capital Bureau has learned that the latest data released by the China Bicycle Association shows that the price of upstream raw materials for bicycles in the first quarter of this year rose by more than 10% year-on-year, and the pressure of rising raw materials is being transmitted from bicycle manufacturers to downstream.

　　However, facing the same industry problem of rising raw material costs, the impact on bicycle manufacturing companies and shared bicycle companies is very different, which can be called "same people, different lives".

　　Coinciding with the "riding fever" in recent years, the sales of bicycle companies have risen sharply, driving relevant performance to be dazzling.

However, the shared bicycles with a single income model have no such luck. With the added cost pressure, the price increase may be a "necessary choice", but whether this behavior can be accepted by consumers and can effectively alleviate the profit dilemma of enterprises , has yet to be validated by the market.

　　Meituan bicycle riding card price increases by 5-30 yuan

　　Hello bikes have also gone up

　　According to news from the Red Star Capital Bureau, Meituan Bicycle announced on August 5 that due to the increase in hardware and maintenance costs, the price of the cycling card will be adjusted from 23:00 on August 10, 2022.

　　According to the announcement of Meituan Bicycle, the price without discount of 7-day card has been adjusted from 10 yuan to 15 yuan; the price of 30-day card without discount has been adjusted from 25 yuan to 35 yuan; the price of 90-day card without discount has been adjusted from 60 yuan to 90 yuan.

That is to say, the prices of these three-level riding cards will increase by 5 yuan, 10 yuan, and 30 yuan respectively.

　　It is worth mentioning that Meituan Bicycle is not the first shared bicycle platform to announce a price increase in recent years.

In March last year, Hellobike took the lead in raising prices in Shanghai, which aroused many discussions.

Since January this year, Hello Bike took the lead in increasing the 7-day card to 15 yuan and the 30-day card to 35 yuan.

In addition, Shenyang, Changsha, Foshan, Mianyang, Zhuhai and other places have also increased the price of a single ride.

　　The Red Star Capital Bureau found that after the price of Meituan bicycles followed the increase, the price of cycling cards was at the same level as that of Hello bicycles. The undiscounted prices for 7 days, 30 days and 90 days were 15 yuan, 35 yuan and 90 yuan respectively; The undiscounted prices of the three types of green orange bicycles without a price increase are 10 yuan, 25 yuan, and 75 yuan respectively.

　　There are fewer and fewer discounts on shared bikes, and ride prices have been climbing.

Some netizens calculated an account. Compared with public transportation, it costs 2.5 yuan to ride a shared bicycle for 16 minutes, which is more expensive than a 2 yuan bus.

　　Some netizens also said, "The subsidy is over, and the price has started to increase." "When the market share is gained, the price will start to increase, which was not the case when the competition for land was carried out."

　　In fact, the price of shared bicycles has been rising since the "subsidy war" stabilized that year.

In September 2016, when Mobike and ofo entered the market, the initial price of shared bicycles was 0.5 yuan/half an hour. With the subsequent introduction of other models, the price of shared bicycles was adjusted to 1 yuan/hour. Today, from the market average level , 3.5-4 yuan per hour has become a common phenomenon.

　　As for the reason for this price increase, Meituan Bicycle mentioned in the announcement as "increased hardware and operation and maintenance costs", while the previous reason for the price increase of Hellobike was "increase in operation and maintenance manpower input and product depreciation cost".

　　Cost, as a keyword for this price increase, was brought to the table.

　　Rising raw material costs

　　Bicycles and bike-sharing companies are on fire

　　The Red Star Capital Bureau has learned that the latest data released by the China Bicycle Association shows that in the first quarter of this year, the price of upstream raw materials for bicycles rose by more than 10% year-on-year, and the bicycle and electric bicycle industries are facing difficulties such as rapid rise in production costs.

The pressure of rising raw materials is being transmitted downstream from bicycle manufacturers.

　　According to the "China Times" report, in the past two years, the prices of upstream raw materials for bicycles, including metal materials and plastics, have risen by 15%-20%.

As the core component material of bicycles, aluminum ingots account for 20%-30% of the cost of bicycles, and its price has risen from 13,000 yuan / ton to 23,000 yuan / ton, an increase of more than 80%.

　　For bicycle manufacturers, although the cost of raw materials is rising, their performance is still considerable because they have caught up with the "cycling fever".

　　Relevant data from the Consumer Goods Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that from January to August 2021, the operating income of bicycle (including electric bicycle) manufacturing enterprises above designated size in the country was 145.16 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.6%, and the total profit was 7.16 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 46.4%.

In terms of sales, JD.com data shows that in this year's JD.com 618 shopping festival, bicycle sales have skyrocketed by 500%, and some orders have even been placed in 2024.

　　In 2021, Shanghai Phoenix (600679.SH), one of the leading companies in the bicycle industry, will achieve revenue of about 2.058 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 49.59%; net profit attributable to the parent is 104 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 71.26%.

In the first quarter of this year, Shanghai Phoenix achieved revenue of 414 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 23.40%, but the net profit attributable to the parent was still increasing year-on-year, with a growth rate of 14.70%.

　　Jiuqi Co., Ltd. (300994.SZ), which is engaged in the design, research and development, production and sales of complete bicycles and their parts and components, also has a strong growth momentum.

In 2021, the revenue will be about 3.710 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 62.31%.

In the first quarter of this year, Jiuqi achieved revenue of 774 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.31%; net profit attributable to the parent was 42.4833 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.41%.

　　Giant Group, which is seriously out of stock, will have sales of NT$81.8 billion (about 18 billion yuan) in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 17%.

　　But bike-sharing companies are not so lucky.

　　According to the annual report of Yonganhang (603776.SH), the first share-sharing bicycle company that mainly operates the government-owned public bicycle business, Yonganhang will achieve revenue of 873 million yuan in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 0.04%; net profit attributable to the parent is 43.8444 million yuan, A sharp drop of 91.13% year-on-year, which seems to be the worst year since its listing in 2017.

In the first quarter of this year, the performance of Yongan Bank continued to decline, with operating income of 170 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 15.88%; net profit attributable to the parent was 12.37 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 57.33%.

　　Yonganxing said that one of the main reasons for the decline in profits last year was the decrease in new investment income in Hello Inc. (ie Hello Travel) in 2021, the exchange rate changes in 2021 and the adjustment of the income tax rate in 2020.

According to the Financial Associated Press, a company official from Yonganxing said that although Yonganxing and Hello Travel will not consolidate their statements, the difficulties encountered by Hello Travel still dragged down the performance of Yonganxing to a certain extent.

　　Behind the loss of the three giants of shared bicycles

　　The income model is relatively simple

　　Facing the same industry problem of rising raw material costs, bike-sharing companies have no "luck" to significantly increase their sales, and can only choose to raise prices to ease the pressure.

Behind this, in fact, is the problem of a single profit model for shared bicycles.

　　In the early stages of shared bicycles, the main profit-making method for companies was user deposits rather than hourly charges.

At that time, the deposit for a small yellow car of ofo was 199 yuan, and the deposit for Mobike was 299 yuan.

According to ofo's estimates at the time, an average of 6-10 deposits can be loaded on each bicycle put into the market, thereby ensuring the profitability of the company and expanding production and delivery.

Hourly charges are more of a supplement.

　　Although deposits can quickly replenish funds for enterprises, this profit model is more like a financial product. Once the capital chain of enterprises breaks, all users who provide deposits will be implicated.

In 2018, ofo exploded, and the deposits of tens of millions of users cannot be refunded so far.

　　Recently, the topic that Mobike can refund the deposit has been on the hot search on Weibo, and Meituan Bicycle, which has acquired Mobike, said that this is an old news.

On December 14, 2020, Mobike stopped its service, fully integrated with Meituan, and changed its name to "Meituan Bike". The balance in the original Mobike account, cycling card packages and other related rights can still be found in the Meituan app. continue to use.

　　Today, Hello, Meituan, and Didi have all launched "deposit-free" cycling. You only need to authorize Sesame credit points or WeChat payment points to scan the code to ride the bike and pay the follow-up time fee.

　　At present, the shared bicycle industry has already achieved a "three-legged confrontation", but even if they bid farewell to the stage of burning money, as of the latest financial data, none of the three major companies has escaped losses.

　　According to the prospectus of Hello Bike, it has been in a state of loss from 2018 to the first quarter of 2021. From 2018 to 2020, the total loss for three years was 4.841 billion yuan, and the highest annual loss exceeded 2 billion yuan.

Mobike, which was wholly-owned by Meituan, suffered a cumulative loss of nearly 5 billion yuan from 2018 to 2020.

Didi's 2021 financial report data shows that Qingju shared bicycles are classified into the loss of 30 billion "other businesses".

　　With the loss of deposit income, the single income model has caused a common dilemma in the shared bicycle industry. In addition, the upstream raw material costs are under pressure. The price increase may be a "must choose" for shared bicycles, but whether this behavior can Accepted by consumers, whether it can effectively alleviate the profit dilemma of enterprises remains to be verified by the market.

(Red Star News)

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