Mobike has more than 200 million registered users and operates more than 9 million bikes in more than 200 cities around the world. Therefore, from the perspective of the speed and slowness reflected in the layout of mobike shared bikes and shared cars, it seems that there is still a long way to go from the ideal of mobike CEO Wang Xiaofeng that “Mobike should establish an integrated three-dimensional model of green and intelligent transportation”.
On the surface, mobike’s frequent overseas appearances seem to reflect its strong vitality and innovation, but the bike-sharing market mobike started has been quite different from its early days. It’s fair to say that Mobike’s bike-sharing business is in the middle of a mental and physical tug of war.
Mobike’s dilemma: enemies on both sides and strategic risks
The big news about shared bikes these days is the price change. Bike-sharing giant Mobike has scrapped its monthly card offer, changing the top-up value from 1 or 2 yuan per month to 20 yuan per month and the annual package to 240 yuan. Ofo, which has long been a competitor, also scrapped its free monthly pass at the end of 2017, raising the price to 20 yuan. Moreover, from last year to now, both Ofo and Mobike were reported to be under heavy financial pressure, resulting in delayed deposit refund.
Although the rumors didn’t come true, the move to adjust the amount of monthly card top-up shows that the industry’s high operating costs have become a reality, and Mobike and Ofo must focus on making profits rather than gaining market share. It also sends a message to the outside world that Mobike and Ofo have tacitly given up the battle to burn money.
But even if mobike changes its business strategy, it still faces many unknowns and challenges.
First, being attacked on both sides is a long-term reality. Mobike’s position in the bike-sharing industry may be at its most precarious. On the one hand, old rival Ofo, which just raised $866 million in funding, is aggressively expanding overseas, pitting it against Mobike even better. According to the Global Bike-sharing Development Report released by Cheetah Global Think Tank, ofo’s weekly active penetration rate in The Chinese market is 0.5729%. The latest weekly active penetration rate of Ofo’s overseas App was 0.0187%, and that of Mobike’s overseas App was 0.0107%.
Although the overseas market has greater development space, Mobike and Ofo still face similar situations in foreign countries as in China, namely, challenges from bike parking management and policy adaptation. For example, man-made damage to bikes is still very common, which brings great confusion to Mobike and Ofo.
Domestic forms, on the other hand, are more fickle. Different from ofo and Mobike, harrow bike still adopts the form of preferential monthly card. Although Harrow bike, supported by Alipay, is currently the third largest bike in the industry, and there is still a gap with Mobike and Ofo, its subsequent efforts may be better than the two predecessors.
Harrow’s recent announcement that it will launch a nationwide rollout of free fees has also caused a stir. Regardless of whether Mobike and Ofo will lose users, if Harrow continues to expand its territory, lower prices alone will more quickly take market share away from Ofo and Mobike in China.
Second, there are strategic risks. At present, the platform and users of shared bikes are willing to trade quietly, rather than price is king. The spirit of repression seems to have dissipated long ago, which makes Mobike firm in its development strategy.
On the one hand, Mobike is still optimistic about its reputation in China, competing with Ofo and Harrow in user cultivation. Mobike, on the other hand, has aggressively gone out to sea in search of new appearances. In this seemingly perfect operation strategy, Mobike still has some possible risks.
First, if Mobike returns to its normal price, can it guarantee user loyalty? Mobike must have not forgotten about other competitors who still use discounts and thought about what users might do before adjusting to normal prices. But price and deposit are two very big factors in the past history of bike-sharing battles. So it’s a matter of how many users will migrate to other platforms, but how prepared is Mobike for such negative pressure?
Second, spending money to go abroad can avoid the same problems as in China? Mobike raised $1 billion in its latest funding round in January. From the perspective of Mobike’s corporate philosophy, it is necessary to go overseas. Fortunately, it also has financial support, so it is inevitable to burn money. However, in fact, the competitive environment abroad is more complex. First, the localization challenges shared by outsiders, such as the differences in cycling culture; Second, the policy variables of shared bikes abroad. In China, it has been a commonplace for Mobikes to be interviewed and supervised. Currently, the problem of indiscriminate parking of shared bikes still exists in many countries. Can Mobike provide a good solution?
All in all, the life-and-death bike-sharing market is not the gold rush it once was, which may be a key factor in Mobike’s foray into shared cars.
Mobike layout of shared cars, prospects and ecology or incentives
To build a mobility empire, Mobike’s foray into shared cars is a natural and necessary move. For Mobike, there may be several benefits to moving into car sharing.
First, shared cars and shared bikes have similar consumption attributes and have great room for growth. Nowadays, car sharing is also a hot spot for capital competition. In addition to Internet companies such as Ctrip and Didi, saic, BaiC, Shouqi and other traditional auto manufacturers are also involved in the market, hoping to make a difference.
Similar to the ability of shared bikes to meet the needs of short distance travel, shared cars also have the ability to meet the needs of users for medium and long distance travel. After making clear that shared cars have the value to meet users’ needs, it is natural that all enterprises should consider the development space of shared cars.
China’s car-sharing market was only about 400 million yuan in 2016 and is expected to expand to 9.3 billion yuan by 2020, up from 400 million yuan in 2016, according to IMedia Research. The road Safety Research Center of the Ministry of Public Security believes that the lack of saturation in the ride-hailing market and favorable policies are the key reasons for the huge development space of shared cars.
In 2018, more players will enter the car sharing market, and Mobike, as a relatively early player in the game, still has the strength to share its own cake if it is willing to work hard and do well.
Second, car sharing is a supplement to travel ecology. Since we want to build an integrated travel ecology, we must meet several mainstream travel needs at present. For Mobike, if car sharing can gradually occupy a certain market, it may form a certain synergistic effect on the basis of the existing bike business.
For example, after completing short-distance cycling by shared bikes, users can directly complete medium-long distance travel by shared bikes, or vice versa. Users can first complete medium-long distance travel by shared bikes, and then complete short-distance travel by shared bikes, which has formed a flow loop to some extent, namely a simple ecology.
From this perspective, car-sharing may be a useful complement to Mobike’s overall mobility ecosystem. This effective supplement may also lay a good foundation for mobike to extend its travel boundary in the future.
So what will Mobike eventually achieve with car-sharing? How far can Mobike share go in a fickle market?
There is a gap between ideal and reality, and Mobike’s dream of car sharing is not easy to do
Currently, there are two schools of thought surrounding car sharing: one is that “car use” will replace “car ownership” as the mainstream of urban mobility in the future as traditional cars disappear. In the trend of intelligence, the prospect of car-sharing cannot be underestimated. The other argues that time-sharing leasing is just a spurt of favorable policies, overcapacity and the concept of “sharing everything”, and that the business model still does not make sense. There is some truth in both statements for car sharing, but it is not accurate for each participant.
How far can Mobike’s shared cars go? First, we can start from the prospect of the shared car industry, which is ideal. There is no doubt that new energy vehicles will be the development trend in the future. However, whether car sharing will be a successful business model in the future remains to be studied. On the one hand, the advantage of new energy shared cars today lies in lower travel costs, which may disappear with the popularity of new energy cars in the future.
On the other hand, many car-sharing entrants, such as Didi Chuxing, Meituan and Ctrip, are no longer interested in car-sharing, but in the future new energy vehicle industry chain. Therefore, if Mobike sees car sharing as a short-term business, it will not be well received, but if it can lay out the future new energy industry through car sharing, it is clear that Mobike will go further.
Second, we can start from the current situation of car sharing, which is the reality. Guian New Area and the main urban area of Guiyang, first selected by Mobike, not only have production lines of Mobike’s car-sharing partner Xinte electric vehicles, but also have a large market to be reclaimed. But for Mobike, the launch of the second – and third-tier cities is partly to avoid encountering more powerful competitors, and the current trial phase is bound to use the cash burning model, so mobike’s confidence in the car sharing business may not be as strong as expected.
Now mo worship in Shared cycling profit dilemma is not crack, doomed to share the car on the muddy waters cannot too deep, or, “as soon as possible thanks to the most desire is upon own heaven and earth, and guizhou from the capital and the strategic point of view, not drag on business already tired of sharing a bicycle, perhaps return ability from their own” kingdom of travel “one step closer.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110