Why is it not cheap?

Shared bicycles, shared cars, shared charging treasures, shared office, shared umbrellas, shared massage chairs ... the development of sharing economy facilitates the lives of residents, and also improves the allocation efficiency of social resources.

However, consumers have recently discovered that major sharing economy brands have been adjusted, and many "shared" consumption is becoming expensive. What are the reasons behind the price increase? How to promote long -term healthy development of the sharing economy? Our reporter interviewed.

"The money for renting two times of charging treasure can buy a new one"

Shared bicycles are the representative format of China's sharing economy, and many consumers have formed stable consumption habits.

In major cities in China, the scale of bicycle sharing is very considerable. Taking Beijing as an example, according to the statistics of relevant departments, in the first half of 2022, Beijing's Internet rental bicycle operating scale reached 995,100, with a cumulative cycling volume of 418 million people, with an average daily cycling volume of 2.3117 million, an increase of 14.52%year -on -year. The average turnover rate of the vehicle was 2.92 times per car, an increase of 24.52%year -on -year. Each enterprise actively responded to the management needs of the local government, with an average daily investment and maintenance force of 1,474 people, 139,800 units, and 72,600 units. In Guangzhou, the average daily order of bicycle sharing vehicles rose from 1.02 million in the second half of 2019 to 1.72 million in the first half of 2021, and the average daily turnover rate of vehicles exceeded 3.5/vehicles.

"The shared bicycle is the most efficient connection tool between the home, the company and the subway station, and the bus station. He Yifan, a Beijing citizen in Xicheng District, said that he had to use a mobile phone to ride a bicycle with a mobile phone every day, which was indeed convenient for travel.

While the travel speed is accelerated, the use price of bicycle sharing has recently changed. Shanghai White -collar Wang Xiao started riding a shared bicycle since 2015. "It was very cheap at first. It only cost a few corners in the university. The monthly card of 9 yuan can be ride casually. There are more and more money on the bicycle sharing. First, it has risen to a dozen yuan, and now it has risen to dozens of yuan. It is not cheaper than taking a bus. "Wang Xiao feels realistic about the rise in bicycle sharing.

In January of this year, Harbin Travel took the lead in adjusting the price, rising the 7 -day card to 15 yuan and 30 days to 35 yuan. Since then, the shared bicycles of other brands have also been adjusted. The reporter learned that at present, the ride costs of several mainstream bicycle-sharing brands have risen to about 10-15 yuan, about 25-35 yuan for 30 days, and about 75-90 yuan.

In the field of sharing consumption, the price increase is not just a bicycle. The reporter sorted out and found that before 2019, most of the mainstream brands shared charging treasures per hour were around 1 yuan. After 2019, the industry rent level entered the "2 yuan era". "The free time limit compressed from 30 minutes to 3 minutes or even shorter, and the ceiling price rose from 20-30 yuan to nearly 100 yuan.

"Slow, expensive, and unprepared longe ... Like 'Ice Cream Assassin', the charging treasure also has 'Assassin'." Zhang Xuan took the whole family to travel around Beijing not long ago. "I am most afraid of the mobile phone out of the travel when traveling, but the shared charging treasures of restaurants, supermarkets, scenic spots and other places are very expensive, and 'good borrowing and not good.' I often encounter charging cabinet failures, no space, etc., and can only continue to continue. Bill. "Zhang Xuan said," The money for renting two charging treasures can be bought for a new one. "

Shared charging treasure rental in a restaurant in Haidian District, Beijing. Reporter Wang Wenzheng Photo

Rise costs, increase concentration, and promote price increases together

Why increase the price? Several shared consumer brands have mentioned cost factors.

Some institutions estimate that the scale of China's sharing economy market in 2021 was nearly 3.7 trillion yuan, a year -on -year increase of 9.2%. At the same time, the cost of production, operation and maintenance, depreciation such as production, operation and maintenance, and depreciation in the operation of the sharing economy rose high, thereby promoting the rise in shared consumer prices. In addition, malicious destruction of shared consumer goods, private locks on shared bicycles, and occupying shared massage chairs, while causing waste of resources, also increased operating costs.

According to industry analysts, taking bicycle sharing as an example, the prices of upstream raw materials such as metal, plastic and other upstream raw materials have risen since this year, and the fluctuations in the epidemic have led to poor logistics and other factors, which has pushed the manufacturing and maintenance costs of shared bicycles. The huge number of bicycles scattered throughout the city need to invest a large number of manpower for inspection, repair, transfer, etc., which also constitutes a considerable rigid cost. Public financial data shows that the industry heads of the industry have suffered huge losses. Regarding the price increase, Harbin has explained that the increase in costs such as operation and maintenance and depreciation is an important reason for the price increase in this round.

Master Wu, an operation and maintenance personnel of a bicycle sharing of a brand in Chaoyang District, Beijing, said that the parking specifications of bicycle sharing are getting stricter and stricter, and it takes a lot of manpower and material resources to place, dispatch, dispatch, and repair. "The depreciation speed of shared bicycles is much faster than private bicycles, and the cost is much higher. It is not cheap to locate the system and electronic locks alone. The daily faulty cars, scrap cars are strange, and the chain and spray advertisements are still small. It is not uncommon for crushing deformation, electronic lock failure, and even the entire vehicle falling into the river. "

Similar situations also exist in the field of shared charging treasures. The reporter learned that as a energy storage device, the shared charging treasure will occur at the problem of severe charging efficiency and increase in failure rate at a higher frequency, which not only reduces the user experience, but also improves maintenance costs. In places with large flow and small charging facilities such as KTV, Bar, Tourist Scenic Area, etc., the update depreciation speed of sharing charging treasures is amazing. At the same time, in order to meet the needs of users to return different places, platform companies also need to spend to build a large -scale rental outlet and pay a certain percentage of income to the operating venue where the outlets are located. Enterprises emphasize cost factors, and from the outside world, the sharing economy has entered the stage of stock competition from the previous "horse race" incremental competition stage, which is also an important factor in price adjustment.

Chen Wenfeng, a researcher at the Hunan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed that the company's early relying on the strong funds of investors by the sharing economic platform enterprises generally adopted a competitive strategy such as "subsidies" and "concession" to attract consumers at low prices. When platform companies obtain a stable passenger flow and allow users to have a certain stickiness, companies need to pursue profit, and often cover costs and seek profits by rising prices. From this perspective, when the concentration of shared consumer brands has increased, price increases have become unexpected things.

A shared charging treasure rental in a animal hospital in Dongcheng District, Beijing. Reporter Wang Wenzheng Photo

Effectively improve the openness and transparency of pricing rules

What do consumers think of price increases?

"Objectively speaking, the consumption experience of shared bicycles is a lot stronger than just 7 or eight years ago. It is more comfortable to ride, and the failure rate is much lower. Enterprises must make money. Moderate price increases can be understood. The key is quality. The key is quality. The key is quality. The key is quality. You can keep up. "Wang Xiao said.

During the interview, many consumers with bicycles stated that they could accept price increases within a reasonable range, and they were just worried that companies would increase their prices sharply or continuously when consumer habits had formed. "It is convenient to have shared bicycles, but it can't afford to ride too much." A consumer said.

Consumers' dissatisfaction is relatively more dissatisfied with the price increase of shared charging treasures. Ms. Liu in Beijing said that the price difference between different brands and different places is relatively large. Especially in some restaurants and shopping malls, sometimes in a hurry to charge, scan the code to remove the charging treasure first, and when returned, the price is far exceeding the expectations. "It took more than 10 hours to charge for more than 10 yuan. Is this price higher?" In her opinion, the pricing of some shared services lacks norms, the verification rules are opaque, making consumers uncomfortable.

Wen Xingqi, deputy director of the China Industry, Studies and Research Cooperation Research Center of Wuhan University, analyzed that at present, products or services in the sharing economy lack a sustainable business model, and have not yet established a complete supervision system in terms of information disclosure, competitive regulation and standardized management. With the increase in market concentration in the field of sharing economy, some platform companies can raise prices on goods and services with their strong market position, which may have a negative impact on market order and consumer benefits.

Sustainable "sharing" requires all parties to work together. How to realize the healthy development of corporate steady operation, good user experience, reasonable price floating, and depreciation speed controlling?

Improving the consumer experience is the key. "The price of shared charging treasures has risen sharply, but the quality has not improved significantly. This is why consumers can generally accept the price increase of bicycles in bicycles, but they are not satisfied with the price increase of shared charging treasures." Zhang Yi, chief analyst of Ai Media Consultation, said.

Platform enterprises should cherish user resources, work hard to improve service level, improve user experience, and adopt various ways to cover costs.

During the interview, a number of experts mentioned that on the one hand, the sharing economy format should be used reasonably to use public resources, and scientifically set the scientific scale from market demand and urban carrying capacity to avoid blind expansion and waste of resources; on the other hand, platform companies It can improve economic benefits from expanding use scenarios, increasing use of frequency, reducing operation and maintenance costs, and developing value -added services, and achieve a win -win situation for users and platforms. For example, many shared bicycle companies are currently adjusting the revenue structure by optimizing the distribution pattern, advertising information, and refining user groups to seek new growth points.

From the perspective of the industry, the healthy development of the sharing economy needs to create a fair and orderly market competition mechanism.

Earlier, the State Administration of Market Supervision explicitly required some shared consumer brand operating enterprises to clearly clarify the pricing rules, strictly implement the size price marking, regulate market price behavior and competition behavior, including 5 shared charging charging of monsters, small power, calls, street power, search electricity, etc. Bao brand. Since the beginning of this year, the General Administration of Market Supervision has repeatedly emphasized that shared the consumer industry must follow the principle of fairness, justice, legal, and honesty in accordance with the "Price Law", and establish a good market price order; strictly implement the main responsibility of enterprise, improve the rules of internal governance, and improve the rules of internal governance. Effectively improve the openness and transparency of pricing rules, and consciously accept social supervision.

Experts believe that as the sharing economy has entered a new stage of development, platform enterprises, users and regulatory authorities also need to seek new balance points to form a platform enterprise to continuously improve the supply level, users consciously love and share consumer goods, regulatory systems and industry self -discipline continuously strengthening strengthening New situation, so as to achieve the sustainable development of the industry and truly return to the source of "sharing".

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