This wave of price hikes for shared bicycles has begun to cover the cycling cards that are commonly used by users.

  From 23:00 on August 10, the price of Meituan Bicycle 7-day card without discount will be adjusted from 10 yuan to 15 yuan; the 30-day card without discount price will be adjusted from 25 yuan to 35 yuan; the 90-day card without discount price will be adjusted from 60 yuan to 60 yuan. 90 yuan.

  In January this year, Hello announced that the 7-day card will increase from 10 yuan to 15 yuan, the 30-day card will increase from 25 yuan to 35 yuan, and the 90-day card will increase from 75 yuan to 90 yuan.

So far, the price of the package cards of the two major cycling giants has been adjusted to the same level, and the increase in cycling cards this year has been between 40% and 50%.

  Regarding the reason for the price increase, both Hello Bike and Meituan Bike stated in their announcements that it was due to the increase in hardware and operation and maintenance costs.

Riding card prices increase, companies say it has little impact on users

  The surging news reporters combed the current bicycle riding cards and found that the current undiscounted prices of Meituan bicycles and Hello bicycles for 7 days, 30 days and 90 days are 15 yuan, 35 yuan and 90 yuan respectively; 25 yuan, 75 yuan.

  In terms of charging rules, as far as Shanghai is concerned, both Hello Bikes and Meituan Bikes are charged 1.5 yuan for 15 minutes, and 1 yuan for every 15 minutes thereafter.

It is equivalent to 4.5 yuan for 1 hour.

The green orange bicycle charges 1.5 yuan for 15 minutes, and 1 yuan for every 10 minutes thereafter, which is equivalent to 5.5 yuan for 55 minutes of cycling and 6.5 yuan for 1 hour of riding.

  For other brands other than the three giants, there are not many bike-sharing apps on the market that can be used normally. Among them, the Little Green Bike app shows that the package purchase list fails, and the billing price for a single ride is the first 30 minutes1 RMB 0.5 for every 30 minutes, i.e. RMB 1.5 for 1 hour of riding.

  After entering the market with a price war, the price of shared bicycles has risen all the way, and has received the attention of market supervision departments.

  Since 2019, Mobike, Hello Bike, and Qingju Bike have entered the era of riding at least 1.5 yuan for 30 minutes.

According to public reports, in 2019, the starting price of Qingju bicycles will be changed from 1 yuan every 30 minutes to 1 yuan every 15 minutes, and an increase of 0.5 yuan every 15 minutes.

The billing rule for Hello Bikes in Beijing has changed to 1 yuan for every 15 minutes of riding.

In the Guangzhou area, the pricing rule was adjusted to 1.5 yuan per 30 minutes, and the price increased by 50%.

Mobike has also officially implemented the new version of the charging rules in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Chengdu and other places.

For example, the starting price of Shanghai Mobike has increased from 1 yuan to 1.5 yuan within 15 minutes, and the time fee remains the same. If the ride exceeds 15 minutes, the fee will be 0.5 yuan per 15 minutes; the starting price of Shenzhen Mobike will increase from 1 yuan within 30 minutes. Up to 1.5 yuan, the time fee remains the same, after the ride exceeds 30 minutes, the fee is 1 yuan every 30 minutes.

  On June 3, 2020, 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, requesting Hello, Qingju, Meituan, Monster, Xiaodian, Caller, Jiedian, Soudian, etc. 8 shared consumer brand management companies have rectified within a time limit, defined pricing rules, strictly enforced clearly marked prices, and standardized market price behavior and competition behavior.

  At the end of August last year, according to the website of the State Administration of Market Supervision, shared consumer brand management companies, including the three major shared bicycles, actively rectified and achieved results. The price increase in the shared consumption field has been effectively curbed, and prices have gradually become transparent and standardized.

  At present, shared bicycles are an integral part of the slow-moving transportation system. After the price of shared bicycles has increased, many netizens directly shouted that "bicycles are more expensive than buses".

Some netizens said that riding a shared bicycle for 16 minutes costs 2.5 yuan, while the bus only costs 2 yuan.

  How much will the price increase of bicycles affect users?

  An industry insider explained to the surging news reporter that shared bicycles are point-to-point solutions to users' travel needs, which are different from those met by buses and subways.

The low price of bus and subway is due to the large amount of government subsidies behind it, and the public bicycles promoted by the government also receive government subsidies, but some areas still withdraw from the market after operating for a period of time.

"Bike sharing has certain social attributes, but it is also characterized as corporate behavior. The government usually provides support in terms of policies and public resources."

  "The price increase of various cycling cards has little actual impact on the majority of users." The relevant person in charge of Hello Bike told The Paper recently that Hello's shared bikes operate in more than 400 cities across the country. Small cities have adjusted the prices of publications within a certain range, specifically to various cycling cards of varying lengths.

"We just adjusted the regular price of the publication at that time, and the actual price of the card purchased by users on the platform is the discounted price based on the original price. The marketing department of the bicycle-sharing company will, at different time points and through the adoption of Joint marketing or cross-industry cooperation will lower the actual price.”

  The price hike this year may improve the profit model of bike-sharing companies.

Internet analyst Ding Daoshi told the surging news reporter that the increase in the price of shared bicycles will lose some users, but due to the increase in the price of bicycles, which are mainly bicycles since the beginning of this year, the general purchasers are loyal users who just need them, so it is unlikely to lead to Mass churn of users.

For companies, raising prices can further optimize their financial structure and help them achieve profitability as soon as possible.

Bicycle business revenue continued to grow, but not fully profitable

  At present, the shared bicycle market has three pillars, mainly Meituan Bicycle (previously Mobike), Hello Bicycle and Didi's Qingju Bicycle.

Previously, Mobike and ofo were the first to enter the sharing market. The two brands once occupied about 95% of the market.

  According to Didi’s prospectus, as of March 31, 2021, Didi had deployed 5.2 million bicycles and 2 million electric bicycles in about 220 cities across the country.

The revenue from this part in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 200 million yuan, 1.5 billion yuan and 3.2 billion yuan respectively.

In the first quarter of 2021, the revenue of shared riding business reached 900 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 212%.

  Meituan acquired Mobike for US$2.7 billion on April 4, 2018. The revenue included in the comprehensive income statement contributed by Mobike was 1.507 billion yuan, and Mobike also contributed a loss of 4.55 billion yuan in the same period.

  According to the financial report, from 2018 to 2021, the five-year annual revenue growth rate of shared riding service is 10%-77%, 11%-166%, 6%-67%, 11%-45%, and gross profit margin is -8%-64%, 29%-49%, 23%-36%, 15%-38%, respectively.

  In the new business segment including shared bicycles and online car-hailing services, revenue in 2019 increased by 81.5% to 20.4 billion yuan, and gross profit increased from -4.3 billion yuan in 2018 to 2.3 billion yuan in 2019.

Among them, Meituan said that shared bicycles successfully narrowed losses in 2019 and improved operational efficiency. After Meituan launched an online car-hailing service in an aggregated model, the control of operating losses has also improved.

  According to the prospectus of Hello Bike, the revenue of Hello in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 2.114 billion yuan, 4.823 billion yuan and 6.044 billion yuan respectively.

Net losses were 2.208 billion yuan, 1.505 billion yuan and 1.134 billion yuan.

As of December 31, 2020, 91% of the company's revenue came from shared two-wheeler services. 

  The total revenue of Hello in the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 was 694 million yuan and 1.415 billion yuan, respectively, and the net losses were 601 million yuan and 836 million yuan, respectively.

Among them, the revenue of the shared two-wheeler service in the first quarter of 2020 was 622 million yuan, and the revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was 775 million yuan. 

The main reason for the price increase: bicycle raw materials and operation and maintenance costs remain high

  According to the Yangcheng Evening News report on August 5, it was learned from the China Bicycle Association's first quarter 2022 bicycle industry economic operation analysis meeting that in the first quarter of this year, the upstream raw materials for bicycles continued to rise last year, with prices rising by more than 10% year-on-year.

This change has now been transmitted to the downstream of the industry, that is, household bicycles and even bicycle-sharing companies.

  In addition to the pressure of rising raw material costs, system operating costs are also a major pain point.

  Yong'an, the first stock in the public bicycle field, showed in its 2021 financial report that since system operation services involve a lot of scheduling, management, monitoring, repair, maintenance and other work, the continuous material and labor procurement costs may vary with my country's overall price level. It will fluctuate due to changes, which will have a certain impact on the gross profit rate of the company's existing system operation service projects.

  "In order to make it more convenient and safe for citizens to use shared bicycles to travel, operating companies have invested a lot of money and manpower to improve their bicycle operation and maintenance capabilities." Guo Jianrong, former secretary-general of the Shanghai Bicycle Industry Association, told The Paper that in order to improve usage and services, shared bicycle companies The bicycles need to be collected and transported to places with high traffic flow several times a day. These are transported by small trucks, and the cost is not low.

  In addition, Guo Jianrong said that after years of development of shared bicycles, management measures have been gradually improved, but the cleaning of illegally parked vehicles has not been fully standardized, resulting in serious damage to shared bicycles that have been cleared and transported, increasing the burden on shared bicycle operators.

At present, some local governments will entrust third parties to clean up the bicycles that are parked indiscriminately, usually in a storage yard. Bicycle companies need to pay a "carrying fee" of 10 to 20 yuan per vehicle, which is also a cost for enterprises.

  According to the financial reports and prospectus of shared bicycle companies, the initial estimated service life of bicycles and electric bicycles is generally 2 to 3 years.

  An industry insider told The Paper that the shared bicycle business kept up with the service many years ago, and it was not only bicycles that supported users to ride, but also a lot of scheduling and maintenance efforts made by bicycle operation and maintenance teams in various cities.

  The person said that a considerable part of the expenditure of bicycle companies is used to maintain and improve the work efficiency and quality of the road operation and maintenance team. The simultaneous improvement of quality will benefit all social parties including users and cities.

The revenue model of shared bicycles is single, how to achieve profitability?

  According to an insider of a shared bicycle company, the current revenue model of shared bicycles is mainly based on selling cards and charging for a single ride.

  Ding Daoshi told The Paper that at present, shared bicycles mainly rely on the main basic service business to earn income.

Business models such as advertising, games, and e-commerce have been launched before, but they have not been successfully implemented and explored on a large scale.

At the beginning, enterprises can supplement funds and expand the scale of vehicles through the deposit model.

  Several industry insiders said that the optimization of the operation and service system of shared bicycle companies requires financial support, and the price increase of shared bicycles can also provide better services for consumers.

  In 2018, Yang Lei, the founder of Hello Travel, said that Hello Travel had achieved breakeven.

Yang Lei said at the time that the operation and maintenance cost of each car of Hello Travel is about 300 cents, and the depreciation cost is 60 cents. The average daily income of the car has exceeded 1 yuan, and it has achieved net profit in more than 100 cities.

  Yang Lei previously stated that bike sharing is a very rigid business and cannot rely on long-term subsidies.

Hello travel has a lot of room for growth in fees. "Not only can it make money, but it can also achieve large-scale profits."

  "Let the participants in the chain live well, and the industry can develop in a healthy and orderly manner." Ding Daoshi said that after the shared bicycle companies obtained huge financing, they burned money and fought price wars, resulting in large-scale and continuous losses. .

At present, from staking the field to intensive cultivation and improving services, the price increase is the general trend of this industry, returning to the proper service nature and reasonable business track. From the perspective of the entire Internet industry, most of them are such a development path.

  "The shared bicycles under the big platform have a certain role in attracting traffic before. But it does not mean that the current shared bicycle model is a failure, and its market contains huge opportunities and market potential." In terms of development trends, Ding Daoshi said that in the future On the one hand, enterprises will carry out richer multi-scenario development and explore travel services based on specific scenarios. On the other hand, they will develop compliance, including room for further improvement in terms of price presentation and big data processing.