Are bike-sharing founders becoming puppets for capitalists? (Turn)
Text / Liu Kuang
On March 1, ofo announced the completion of the D round of financing of US$450 million (about 3.1 billion yuan). In just two and a half years, ofo has assembled DST, Didi Chuxing, CITIC Industrial Fund, Matrix Partners China, Coatue, Sands Jiang Venture Capital, Dongfang Hongdao, ZhenFund, angel investor Wang Gang, Shunwei Capital and other capital giants.
And ofo's biggest rival Mobike has also completed the D round of financing. Since the beginning of January this year, the cumulative financing amount has exceeded 300 million US dollars. There is even news that they are launching the E round of financing. Joy Capital, Panda Capital , Hillhouse Capital, Warburg Pincus, Sequoia Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Tencent and other investment institutions became their shareholders.
In addition to ofo and Mobike, other shared bicycles are also constantly seeking new financing. Just a few days ago, Xiaolan Bicycle also announced that it had received 400 million yuan in financing again in January this year. Entrepreneurs of shared bicycles are constantly raising funds frantically. They have to strike while the iron is hot and take advantage of this momentum to get more funds from investors. Almost all bicycle-sharing entrepreneurs are doing their own spring and autumn dreams, hoping that they can Become China's next "Didi".
Tragedy repeats itself, bike-sharing entrepreneurs are becoming puppets of capitalists
After the merger of Youku Tudou, the founder of Tudou quietly retired; after the merger of 58 Ganji, the founder of Ganji Yang Haoyong was forced out; after the merger of Didi Kuaidi, the founder of Kuai Chuanwei quietly left; after the merger of Qunar and Ctrip, Zhuang Chenchao, the founder of Qunar, left reluctantly; after the merger of Meituan-Dianping, Zhang Tao, the founder of Dianping, quietly retreated to the second line... Almost every merger means that a founder will choose to leave...
In fact, whether it is the founders who left or those who remain in power after the merger, they have almost lost absolute control over the companies they founded, and the power has long been in the hands of the investors behind them. Today, bicycle-sharing entrepreneurs are also frantically chasing financing. Maybe many people envy and hate the founder of ofo post-90s Dai Wei, and love and envy Hu Weiwei, the founder of bicycle-sharing beauty, but the tragedy of history is just right It began to repeat itself on them, and it was difficult for them to become the supreme and powerful leader of the company like BAT's Jack Ma, Ma Huateng, and Li Yanhong. They are gradually becoming the puppets of capitalists...
In the end, it was unsustainable to burn money, and capitalists began to consider the return on investment. Under the impetus of capitalists, the shared bicycle industry will usher in a merger. One of the founders of one platform chose to leave, and the other founder had a "glossy appearance". Become the new "puppet emperor" after the merger.
However, people can't help themselves in the arena:
Without financing, under the premise of lack of sufficient profit support, it is difficult for bicycle-sharing entrepreneurs to make their platforms stronger and bigger, and they may have died on the way;
Without financing, it is difficult for entrepreneurs to promote the rapid development of the entire shared bicycle market by themselves, and it is difficult for shared bicycles to be as popular as today, and they will not be so dazzling;
If they don’t raise funds, greedy capitalists will support the entrepreneurs’ competitors, and the entrepreneurs will be crowded out by competitors who have already received huge financing, and will eventually be forced out of the game…
Since they are already on the road of financing, entrepreneurs cannot stop their pace, because the next competition is the financing speed and financing scale of the platform. Whoever can get the support of more capitalists first will be able to take the lead. Taking advantage one step at a time and taking more market share by burning money, they have been forced to become the puppets of the capitalists.
Flowers, applause, and touts swarmed up, and the blindly optimistic puppets launched a frantic fight
Driven by capital, the puppets began to be blindly optimistic and confident, they began to believe that shared bicycles have a huge market space, and they began to imagine that the platform they created would become the next "Didi" or "Uber" a great entrepreneur. So, although they became puppets, they didn't care, and they started a frantic fight with their competitors in their own joy.
1. Burning money to hit the market
History will not repeat itself, but the essence of history will not change. Today's shared bicycles are repeating the money-burning war of Didi Kuaidi in the past. Various recharge promotions are emerging one after another, and the intensity is bigger than the first. Some platforms even launched free riding activities to subsidize consumers.
On the other hand, bike-sharing platforms such as Mobike, ofo, Xiaoming, and Youbai have also begun their crazy urban expansion, and the war has even spread from the domestic market to overseas. However, bike-sharing has still not found a reasonable business model, and is even regarded as a financial scam by many people in the industry because of the deposit issue.
2. Competition technology show
First, ofo announced that it has reached a cooperation with China Telecom and Huawei to solve the pain point of unlocking. The three parties will jointly develop a new type of shared bicycle based on the new generation of Internet of Things NB-IoT (cellular-based narrowband Internet of Things technology). The next day, Mobike and WeChat It was jointly announced that the Mobike mini-program and WeChat "scan" are opened, and the scan and unlock can be used.
Whether it is Mobike or ofo, they have launched "smart" shared bicycles such as motor systems, anti-theft systems, and smart locks, and a technology show of shared bicycles is also quietly starting. We have to give a certain degree of affirmation to this technology show. With the help of new technology, it is possible to bring a better user experience to shared bicycles, but more implementation is needed.
3. PK industry supply chain
The popularity of shared bicycles has also indirectly promoted the development of the entire bicycle industry chain, especially the upstream bicycle manufacturing industry, so these shared bicycle platforms have also begun to penetrate into the upstream manufacturing industry chain.
Mobike has chosen the heavy mode of its own bikes from the very beginning, and released the Mobike Lite, which integrates some traditional bicycle technologies and adopts a number of advanced technologies to activate GPS, smart locks, and solar panels. New technologies such as charging. Ofo has gradually penetrated into the upstream bicycle manufacturing industry through strategic cooperation with famous bicycle companies such as Feige and Phoenix. With the continuous growth of bicycle sharing platforms for bicycles, they will compete more fiercely in the upstream manufacturing field in the future.
Can capitalists create a new "Didi" in the field of shared bicycles?
Driven by capital, shared bicycles are starting to expand their territory wildly, even more aggressive than Didi Kuaidi in the past. They have spread their fronts to developed markets such as North America and Europe in advance. The reason why these capitalists are so crazy about giving blood to shared bicycles is because they want to create a new "Didi" and a new "Uber" in the field of shared bicycles. However, driven by greedy capital, the entire shared bicycle began to have frequent problems...
1. After the crazy expansion, chaos has arisen
Problems such as the destruction, occupation, and illegal parking of shared bicycles are becoming more and more serious. It is reported that the "Kara" brand shared bicycles in Putian, Fujian have only survived for 19 days, because the investors have withdrawn their capital due to the excessive loss of vehicles. However, the shared bicycle platform has almost no countermeasures in the face of bicycle damage and illegal parking. If things go on like this, what shared bicycles bring to the society is not travel convenience, but travel obstacles. The chaos of shared bicycles is also caused by many reasons:
First, the most fundamental issue is human nature. It is no wonder that everyone regards shared bicycles as a national mirror. On the one hand, the poor quality leads to the random parking of shared bicycles, which poses a serious challenge to urban management; on the other hand, since the shared bicycles are not their own bicycles, people's love for bicycles is naturally very low, and the phenomenon of man-made damage In addition, some citizens will destroy these open-air bicycles for no reason, and some even take them as their own.
Second, it is unreasonable to completely describe the responsibility as the poor quality of the people. The shared bicycle platform also has an inescapable responsibility. Many people often complain about the cycling experience, such as the inability to move the seat cushion at will, it is always difficult to contact customer-service-phone calls, and the deposit is not refunded in a timely manner.
Third, the management and operation behind the blind expansion is poor. In just over a year, shared bicycles are expanding to major cities across the country at an unprecedented speed, but at the same time, many problems have been exposed, especially the management cannot keep up. In the face of so many cities and so many bicycles in each city, the use and management of bicycles has become a chronic problem.
Fourth, in some urban areas, the number of shared bicycles has far exceeded the city’s load, which invisibly leads to the shortage of non-motor vehicle road resources and the shortage of non-motor vehicle parking spaces in the city center, which also indirectly leads to Many users park their bicycles indiscriminately.
2. The chaotic shared bicycles will also face the risk of government regulation
At this time, during the two sessions, representatives from many places raised the issue of "disorderly parking" of shared bicycles. Not long ago, about 4,000 shared bicycles in Huangpu District, Shanghai were temporarily and uniformly managed by the Shanghai Huangpu District Vehicle Parking Management Company due to random parking and excessive occupation of the original non-motor vehicle parking spots, and were confiscated in the manufacturing facility. In the parking lot of Bureau Road, it has been nearly a month. Most of them are Mobike bikes, and there are also some ofo’s little yellow bikes and Xiaoming’s little blue bikes. The concentrated outbreak of shared bicycles has brought many challenges to urban areas where non-motor vehicle parking resources are scarce, and it has also brought policy supervision risks to the shared bicycle industry.
First, the clear problem of the subject of shared bicycle management. For the parking management of shared bicycles, there are three management entities: one is the shared bicycle platform; the other is the vehicle parking company; and the other is the transportation and urban management department. So, there is no feasible plan for who should manage it. In fact, the contradiction between the shared bicycle platform and the vehicle parking company is getting deeper and deeper, and the two sides have not reached a consensus on the issue of bicycle parking, which will lead to more and more random parking of shared bicycles will be long-term detained by the vehicle parking company.
Second, the legal liability of shared bicycles. For users who deliberately destroy and privately occupy shared bicycles, they need to bear certain legal responsibilities, but at the same time, who should be responsible for the traffic-traffic-accidents when users ride shared bicycles? At present, there is no clear legal responsibility bearer.
Third, shared bicycles currently lack a unified and feasible operation and maintenance standard. The reason why today's shared bicycles are parked indiscriminately, damaged and other problems emerge one after another, which is closely related to the operation and management of shared bicycles. As the chaos of shared bicycles becomes more and more serious, the government will inevitably put forward certain requirements and standards for the operation and management of shared bicycle platforms.
3. Questions about the pseudo-demand for shared bicycles have never stopped
For the current market demand for shared bicycles, many people think that it is mainly driven by two winds.
A wind is a sense of fresh curiosity. Shared bicycles are so popular that many people have never experienced them. The fresh curiosity makes many people try to experience shared bicycles for the first time, but there are not many repeat customers who really use shared bicycles for a long time.
Another trend is the promotion of burning money. In fact, many people have misunderstandings about burning money. Many people think that burning money can create demand. Didi is a typical example, but this is not the case. Didi just uses the means of burning money to convert the users who used to take taxis into users of its own platform. Burning money can not create demand, but can cultivate user habits, but capitalists mistakenly believe that burning money can also create a lot of cycling demand. In the past, the false demand for door-to-door o2o services that have failed many times is not enough to become a lesson for the past?
As a kind of campus travel and tourism vacation travel tool, shared bicycles do have a certain demand, but whether this demand really has the huge market demand of Didi Chuxing is indeed questionable. As far as the short-distance travel demand is concerned, in summer, many people are reluctant to go to work because of the smell of sweating on their bicycles; in winter, riding a bicycle in the cold wind can even freeze people to death. Obviously, more people regard shared bicycles not as a short-distance travel tool, but as a campus romantic life or a travel and stroll lifestyle.
As a result, the doubts about the demand for shared bicycles have never stopped, and it is not to blame for the users' doubts. I am afraid that even the founders of shared bicycles cannot determine how big the market demand is.
From this point of view, shared bicycles are indeed becoming more and more popular under the promotion of capital, and the existence of rigid demands such as campus travel and tourism and vacation travel cannot be denied. However, behind this boom, there are still many fakes. Demand, many people just regard shared bicycles as a fresh experience, but after the freshness has not become their long-term demand for short-distance travel; and the problems such as random parking brought about by blind expansion have also brought the management of shared bicycles. There are many challenges and government regulatory risks always exist.
The bicycle-sharing entrepreneurs are only blindly optimistic and confident under the promotion of capital, secretly indulging in the joy that the bicycle-sharing platform they built will become the next "Didi" or "Uber". In fact, they have already become puppets in the hands of capitalists, and they may even face the painful situation of being kicked out by investors after the industry merges...