1.6 yuan for 5 hour! The price of shared bicycles has quietly increased, and it has become more expensive than the bus and subway

2015 is known as the first year of the sharing economy. Under the wind, a series of sharing economy products such as shared bicycles, shared charging treasures, shared umbrellas, shared gyms, shared toys, and shared clothing have emerged in the market.

After several years of industry reshuffling and reshaping, shared bicycles remained.

Of course, there has been a complete reshuffle of bike-sharing players. In 2016, there were more than 20 companies in the competition, and now the market presents a "big three" competition state of Meituan Bicycle, Hello Bicycle, and Didi Qingtang, and the three companies occupy 95% of the market.

According to the game of "pulling new, retaining, and converting" of Internet companies, as the industry enters a mature and stable period, enterprises no longer burn money to subsidize users, but begin to "harvest" on the user side.

In the past year or two, the topic of "sharing bicycles has increased in price again" has sparked discussions on the Internet from time to time. Red Star Capital Bureau noted that the price of shared bicycles in some cities has risen to 1.6 yuan per hour.

In the face of increasingly expensive shared services, will consumers still pay?

(i)

The price of shared bicycles has quietly increased

In some cities, 1 hour is 6.5 yuan

For the price increase of shared bicycles, many consumers must resonate, but when did the price of shared bicycles quietly rise?

According to the form of purchase of consumers, shared bicycles have two charging modes: package riding and single cycling.

1. Package riding: 2022 ushered in a collective price increase

Since January last year, the package cycling card for shared bicycles has ushered in a collective price increase.

In January 2022, Hellobike announced that it would increase the 1-day cycling package from 7 yuan to 10 yuan, the 15-day pass from 30 yuan to 25 yuan, and the 35-day pass from 90 yuan to 75 yuan.

In August 2022, Meituan Bicycle also issued an announcement to increase the 8-day cycling pass from 7 yuan to 10 yuan, the 15-day pass from 30 yuan to 25 yuan, and the 35-day pass from 90 yuan to 60 yuan.

So far, except for Didi Orange, the price of the package card of the two major bicycle brands has been adjusted to the same level.

In 2022, the price adjustment of cycling packages by cycling companies is not small, and the price increase has reached 20%-50%, which has a greater impact on sticky users who often ride bicycles.

Taking the price of Meituan bicycles after the price increase as an example, if you do not count the additional discounts, the current season pass (90 days) price is 90 yuan, which is 360 yuan a year, which is already possible for consumers to buy a bicycle.

In addition, users also need to consider whether they can find a bicycle corresponding to the Meituan brand when using the car, and face additional scheduling fees and management fees when they cannot find a parking spot.

2. Single ride: The price is different in different regions, and the overall price is still increasing

Among cycling users, there are still many users who do not buy a package card to ride, but choose the method of single payment.

According to iMedia consulting data, in 2022, 36.6% of Chinese shared bicycle users will choose a single payment.

In addition, different cities, different brands, how different the price of a single settlement is different.

For example, in early May this year, some media reported that the pricing method of some bicycle brands in Xiamen City changed; At the beginning of this year, some media also reported changes in the pricing methods of some bicycle brands in Chengdu; In addition, users in Shandong, Jiangsu and other places have also reported that shared bicycle brands in their regions have adjusted prices.

Taking Meituan bicycles in Chengdu as an example, Red Star Capital Bureau learned that since January 1 this year, Meituan has implemented a new pricing standard in Chengdu, and the previous starting price of 23.1 yuan included 5 minutes, but now it is adjusted to 30 minutes.

That is to say, if the user rides for 20 minutes, he needs to pay 2.5 yuan now, compared with 1.5 yuan before; if he rides for 50 minutes, he needs to pay 4.5 yuan now, compared with 3 yuan before.

This increase is also not small. If users commute to work through shared bicycles every day, according to the 20-minute cycling time, consumers need to pay about 22 yuan per month for shared bicycles in 110 working days, compared with only 66 yuan previously.

If you don't open a package riding card, you can buy a bicycle for three months at this price.

It is worth mentioning that after Meituan's price increase, other bicycle brands in Chengdu have also adjusted their cycling pricing rules. At present, the prices of Meituan Bicycle, Hellobike (weekdays) and Didi Qingtang (classic version) are consistent in Chengdu.

In addition, because price adjustments vary from city to city, some bicycle brands in some first-tier cities actually have higher prices.

Taking Shanghai as an example, the current charging rules for Meituan Bike and Hellobike are 15.1 yuan for the first 5 minutes, and 15 yuan for every 1 minutes thereafter, which is equivalent to 1.4 yuan for one hour. Didi Tangerine (Classic Version) charges 5.15 yuan for the first 1 minutes, and 5 yuan for every 10 minutes thereafter, which is equivalent to 1.1 yuan for 6 hour of cycling.

In summary, whether it is a package ride or a single ride, the price of shared bicycles is indeed rising.

The era of five cents and a half an hour, all kinds of red envelopes and even free rides is long gone. No wonder some consumers complain that the price of riding shared bicycles is now more expensive than that of buses and subways.

(ii)

Consumers "love and hate"

Ninety percent of users ride every week

From the user level, according to the data of the "Special Research Report on the Development of Shared Mobility in China in the First Half of 2021" released by iMedia Consulting, the main factors for users to choose shared bicycle travel are that they think that they are environmentally friendly, exercise, do not want to walk, do not want to take public transportation, affordable price and other reasons.

Therefore, shared bicycles have become a "last mile" travel choice for many consumers, according to online economic data, in 2021, the scale of shared bicycle users in China has reached 3 million.

In addition, the frequency of these users using shared bicycles is not low. According to iMedia consulting data, in 2022, 37.9% of Chinese shared bicycle users use it an average of 3-4 times per week, 36.0% use it 1-2 times per week, and a small number of consumers use it up to 5 times a week or more.

In other words, nearly 90% of shared bicycle users use shared bicycles every week.

In large cities where traffic congestion is more likely to occur, consumers tend to rely more on bike-sharing.

Taking Beijing as an example, according to the Beijing Evening News, the number of shared bicycles in Beijing has reached 2022 million in 9, with an average daily cycling volume of 37.280 million.

Although these urban office workers are more "dependent" on shared bicycles, they have also brought them a lot of trouble in the process of using shared bicycles.

On the black cat complaints, search for related shared bicycle brands, and the number of complaints from users is large, basically revolving around "can't find a parking spot", "random deduction of dispatch fees", "bicycle quality problems" and so on.

In addition, according to iMedia consulting data, in the 2022 China Shared Bicycle User Survey, in addition to improving bicycle performance, nearly 60% of consumers believe that shared bicycles should reduce costs, reduce broken cars, and improve the speed of maintenance.

In general, environmental protection and convenience make shared bicycles have a large user scale, and many first-tier cities have strong user stickiness, but many consumers are not satisfied with the comprehensive use experience.

(iii)

Is bike sharing a good business?

Perhaps many people think that the frequent price increase of shared bicycles is that companies want to make more money by relying on shared bicycles. After all, sharing bicycles is also a business with a large user base and high frequency of use.

But in fact, companies may also be aggrieved about price increases, because sharing bicycles is not very profitable.

According to the prospectus of HelloMobility, the revenue in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 21.14 billion yuan, 48.23 billion yuan and 60.44 billion yuan respectively; The net losses were RMB22.08 billion, RMB15.05 billion and RMB11.34 billion respectively.

In other words, Hello Mobility has accumulated a loss of about 3.48 billion yuan in three years. By the end of 2020, 91% of Haro's revenue came from shared two-wheeler services (bicycles and motorcycles).

Meituan's situation is not much better. According to the financial report, Meituan wholly acquired Mobike in April 2018 for US$4.27 billion, and Mobike's revenue contributed by Mobike was 15.07 billion yuan in the comprehensive income statement, while Mobike contributed a loss of 45.5 billion yuan to Meituan during the same period.

In 2022, Meituan achieved revenue of 2199.55 billion yuan and adjusted net profit of 28.284 billion yuan, but the operating loss of the new business segment where the shared bicycle business and community fresh food are located reached <>.<> billion yuan.

In 2021, Qingtang shared bicycles were divided by Didi into a loss of 300 billion yuan in "other businesses".

According to Didi's prospectus, as of March 2021, 3, Didi deployed 31.220 million bicycles and 520 million electric bicycles in about 200 cities across the country. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the revenue from this segment was 2 million yuan, 15.32 billion yuan and <>.<> billion yuan, respectively.

In general, whether it is Haro, Meituan Bicycle or Didi Qingtang, sharing bicycles are a somewhat "bitter haha" business for these "Big Three".

Why does bike sharing seem to have a large number of users, but in fact it is not very profitable?

From the income side of enterprises, in fact, the profit model of shared bicycles is relatively single. In the past, it was also possible to use consumers' deposits as leverage, which became a financing tool in disguise, but now everyone is in the "deposit-free" model, and the profit model is only user payment and advertising.

From the cost side of the enterprise, first of all, car building is a heavy asset, and the cost is not low.

According to the Qianjiang Evening News, the average cost of a shared bicycle in the early days reached more than 2000,<> yuan. However, the cost of buying a car is only one aspect, and the greater cost lies in the high operation and maintenance costs after being put into the market.

Hello CEO Yang Lei previously said in an interview with the media that the daily operation and maintenance cost of a bicycle is 0.3 yuan, and the depreciation cost of each vehicle per day is 0.6 yuan.

In other words, the daily operation and maintenance and depreciation costs of each shared bicycle are about 1 yuan, while a bicycle costs 365 yuan per year.

Assuming that a shared bicycle company invests 10,<> bicycles, the annual operation and maintenance cost can reach more than <> million yuan. This is without counting extreme cases such as loss, serious damage, etc., and the final cost will only be higher.

However, why do Internet giants have to deploy shared bicycle revenue structure with a single revenue structure and complicated costs?

In fact, behind insisting on sharing bicycles, companies have their own "trade-offs".

For Haro, the travel business represented by shared bicycles is only an entrance, and what companies want to do is a travel and life service platform.

In April 2022, Haro also removed the word "travel" from its name and launched a new brand slogan of "accompanying life every day". Hello said that this means a new stage of development for the company to transform from a mobile travel platform to a professional local travel and life service platform.

Haro's business boundaries are also expanding, opening the APP, in addition to cycling, hitchhiking, taxi and other travel business, Haro is also involved in hotels, catering, online errands, train tickets, attraction tickets, pets and other businesses.

It can be said that from sharing bicycles to mobility platforms, and then expanding to the entire local life business, Haro continues to expand its business territory and enter the sectors that are more likely to achieve profitability.

Meituan bicycles are mainly to fill the gap in Meituan's local life, which is an important part of Meituan's improvement of local life services. From takeaway, grocery shopping and medicine shopping to travel, Meituan Bicycle is more of a supplement to the travel end.

Qingtang is improving the travel territory of the Didi platform. For Didi, shared bicycles are relatively low-end, and enterprises can cultivate user habits through high-frequency shared bicycles, and then transition to the ride-hailing business to supplement users' travel needs.

In general, Didi and Meituan's demand for shared bicycles is "inward", and a stable flow entrance is maintained through shared bicycles. Haro's demand for shared bicycles is "outward", and companies start from travel to explore more business possibilities.

brief summary

Now that the wave of sharing economy has faded, those sharing products that are not recognized by consumers and have no commercial value have been eliminated, and shared bicycles have been retained as products that can solve the real needs of consumers.

These Internet companies also have different "calculations" on shared bicycles. When it comes to price increases, this may be expected. However, how to scientifically manage bicycles and improve service quality, the market has also put forward higher requirements for these shared bicycle companies.

Red Star News reporter Liu Yao