Author |Cao Shuangtao.
Edit |Maggie.
It costs 1,200 yuan a year to use a shared charging treasure."
The shared power bank that was popular six or seven years ago has recently come out of the circle with this kind of topic.
The protagonist of the incident, Wang Liang, works for an Internet company in Beijing, and needs to visit customers frequently for work reasons, and uses shared power banks very frequently. Approaching the end of the year, Wang Liang found that when calculating the annual consumption report of shared charging treasure, he spent as much as 1,200 yuan on shared charging treasure a year.
Source: Wang Liang's circle of friends.
According to the content released by Wang Liang's circle of friends, the expenditure of 1,200 yuan includes the charging fee for using platforms such as Meituan, Monster Charging, Street Electricity, and Incoming Calls. Among them, Meituan's power bank expenditure accounted for 70%, and because he forgot to return the power bank twice, he was deducted 99 yuan.
Behind the individual cases of 1,000 yuan of expenditure a year, it has become a common phenomenon to share charging treasure in recent years. In 2017, the charging standard of shared charging treasure was still 1 yuan per hour, but now it is more than 4 yuan per hour, and even some brands have reached 6 yuan per hour, and the charge has increased several times in more than 5 years.
From the original "life-saving straw" to today's "wallet assassin", in just a few years, what has the shared charging treasure industry experienced? Why does it keep happening?
"I'm driven crazy by the shared power bank".
I'm driving myself crazy with shared power banks. ”
Zhao Na, a consumer in Hefei, Anhui Province, told Value Planet. On the third day of the Lunar New Year this year, Zhao Na and her girlfriend went shopping, because they forgot to charge their mobile phones before departure, and when the mobile phone power was only 5%, they could only rent a shared power bank of a certain brand.
But in the process of use, she found that on the one hand, the charging speed of the shared charging treasure is extremely slow, and only 30% of the electricity is charged at most in 1 hour, which makes people wonder whether the charging speed is deliberately slowed down, and then increase the use time and charge more to the user.
On the other hand, when returning the power bank, the map is full of loopholes, and it shows that there is no machine of the brand when you go to the map guide, and although there is a brand machine in some places, it cannot be returned because the card slot is full. On the same day, Zhao Na looked for 4 places back and forth, and spent 2 hours before finally successfully returning the power bank. During the search process, the shared charging treasure has been kept billing, which makes her feel very unreasonable.
In fact, consumers' complaints about shared power banks are not isolated cases. On the black cat complaint platform, after searching for shared charging treasures, there are more than 20,000 related complaints, and these complaints focus on problems such as difficulty in returning, malicious deductions, deductions after returning, and hidden charges.
More consumers complained that the use of a certain brand of shared charging treasure for 2 hours was deducted 60 yuan, 15 hours were deducted 75 yuan.
Source: Black Cat Complaint.
Among the hot spots of consumer rights protection in 2023 announced by the China Consumers Association, the shared charging treasure is also among them. Fastdata pole data shows that difficult return, unreasonable billing and high billing are the three major factors affecting the satisfaction of shared charging treasure users.
Source: fastdata poles.
Not only that, but the shared charging treasure, which was once regarded as "just needed for emergency", is also being replaced by more other charging methods. Not only more and more users will take the initiative to bring charging equipment when they go out, traditional fuel vehicles can be equipped with USB Type-C ports through simple modifications, and the current new energy vehicles are gradually making USB Type-C ports standard, and equipped with more interfaces in the front and rear positions, so as to solve the owner's mobile phone charging anxiety.
Source: Understand Chedi.
In addition, in the past few years, the battery life of smartphones has been continuously improved through methods such as super flash charging, comprehensive performance optimization, and large-capacity batteries.
Source: counterpoint
Under the combined influence of many factors, the frequency and number of users using shared charging treasure are declining, which not only affects the shared charging revenue of the shared charging treasure platform, but also has an impact on the income of other sectors.
The Internet platform around the to C-end is essentially a business of DAU+ cutting the user's usage time. Whether it is the advertising revenue of Monster Charging, the subsequent expansion of the business of selling alcohol and masks, or the games, social, blind date, pets and many other businesses that Hellobike has launched successively, it is essentially to maximize the use of platform traffic for monetization.
The decrease in the number and frequency of user use means that the time spent by DAU+ users on the platform has declined, and the platform traffic will naturally be affected. It is not difficult to explain why neither the wine or mask business of Monster Charging has caused much splash in the market, and this is why it is difficult for the sharing platform to build a second growth curve.
While user traffic is declining, shared charging companies also need to bear high operating costs and equipment depreciation costs. The relevant person in charge of the Hangzhou Municipal Consumer Protection Committee has revealed that the charging gun of the power bank has a loss of 20% to 30% after 500 charges. If you take into account factors such as charging, use, and environment, the service life will be greatly shortened.
The financial report information previously disclosed by Monster Charging also shows that from 2019 to 2021, the depreciation cost of enterprise mobile power supply accounted for % and 88%。In order to hedge equipment depreciation and operation and maintenance costs, shared charging treasure enterprises can only choose to increase prices.
This phenomenon not only occurs in the field of shared power banks, but also the explanation given by Hellobike for the previous price increase is very similar: the increase in costs such as operation and maintenance and depreciation is one of the main reasons for the price increase. Meituan also said in the announcement that the price increase was due to "the increase in hardware and operation and maintenance costs".
But in essence, the sharing economy represented by the shared charging treasure mainly relies on the Internet platform and technology, the sharing economy establishes a platform in the Internet, so that all stakeholders can carry out equal economic exchanges on the platform, and the more users on the platform, the greater the economic effect will be.
Unable to achieve the scale of users, shared charging companies are either mired in losses, or reduce costs and increase efficiency through layoffs, or shut down business. As shown in the financial report of Monster Charging, its net profit attributable to the parent company in 2021 and 2022 will be -1 respectively2.5 billion and -71.1 billion yuan.
In April 2020, Meituan set up a shared power bank operation and maintenance team of more than 2,000 people. However, in July 2021, Gao Cheng, the head of Meituan's power bank, resigned, and BD, the shared power bank business line, was assigned to Meituan Preferred. In 2022, Meituan's revenue will be about 220 billion yuan, but the operating loss of the "new business" segment, which includes the bicycle sharing and power bank business, is as high as 28.4 billion yuan.
In the face of the above predicament, shared charging treasure companies can only regard the price increase as "the hope of the whole village". However, the price increase is also easy to make the shared charging treasure enterprises fall into a vicious circle of poor user use, and they have stayed away from the "wallet assassin" platform sharing charging revenue, DAU+ user usage time decline, platform losses intensify, and continue to increase prices.
Shared charging treasure is also a "worker" in supermarkets
In order to acquire more users, meet the charging needs of users, and then drive the growth of platform revenue, shared charging treasure enterprises need to lay more points. In other words, the competition of shared charging treasure is essentially a battle for points. iResearch data also shows that in the cost structure of shared charging treasures, the cost of merchant settlement accounts for the highest proportion, reaching 468%。
Although the shared charging treasure has gone through several rounds of industry reshuffle, the competition pattern tends to be stable, but the homogenization of the business model determines that this competitive pattern is easy to break. Based on this, shared charging treasure companies have to invest a lot of money to compete for high-quality points.
Source: fastdata poles.
The first is to compete for relatively large positions such as cinemas, commercial streets, and large supermarkets. In these areas, shared charging treasure companies not only have to bear higher admission fees, but also need to share with terminal merchants. According to relevant ** reports, in September 2021, in order to settle in Universal Studios, a number of shared charging treasure companies such as Xiaodian, Street Electric, and Monster Charging participated in the bidding, and finally Monster Charging became the first shared charging treasure partner of Universal Studios Beijing with an admission fee of 7 million yuan.
Under the heavy competition for high-quality points, the entry fees of shared charging companies are rising. As shown in the prospectus disclosed by Xiaodian Technology that year, the proportion of its entry fee increased from 1% in 2018 to 16% in 20203%。The entry fee expenditure for Monster Charging has also increased from 1 in 20190.6 billion yuan increased to 3800 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 260%. In other words, shared charging treasure can be said to be a proper "worker" for large supermarkets.
Second, for clothing stores, mom-and-pop supermarkets, and restaurants along the street, shared charging treasure companies also need to bear a higher share ratio.
Zhang Wei, the owner of a restaurant in Fuyang City, Anhui Province, told Value Planet that around the National Day last year, when a shared charging treasure company cooperated with him, the sharing ratio was 5:5, but he did not agree. The reason is that under special circumstances in the three years from 2020 to 2023, the store did not make any money; Second, in 2023, due to the crazy entry of a large number of whites in the catering industry, the rent of the store will skyrocket; Thirdly, there is no shortage of customers in their own restaurants, and whether they provide shared charging treasure or not has no impact on customer acquisition. "Whoever puts the power bank at the catering cashier is put, of course, who has a high proportion of the share with the giving, and I put whom. Under the impasse between the two sides, in the end, the regional manager of the power bank company could only cooperate with Zhang Wei according to the 3:7 sharing ratio.
The third is to share the charging treasure enterprise through the business model to expand more points, reduce the pressure on the operation of the enterprise, although the model is exempt from high admission fees, but the sharing of the charging treasure enterprises need to pay the first business up to 75% to 90% of the commission.
At the same time, Li Qiang, a businessman of a shared charging treasure company, told Value Planet that due to the difference between the direct sales point and the business location, and in the face of competition in the industry, there is actually no unified pricing for the shared charging treasure, and the merchant can adjust it at will.
But in the three years from 2020 to 2022, the situation in the offline market is that we have not made any money. Therefore, in 2023, it is natural to make money through price increases, self-pricing, etc. Li Qiang said.
These circumstances have made it more difficult for shared charging treasure companies to make profits. As mentioned above, the sharing platform has been unable to explore the second revenue growth curve for a long time, and is facing a serious revenue single problem.
Taking Monster Charging's financial report for the third quarter of 2023 as an example, its mobile device charging revenue is 240.4 billion yuan, accounting for 97 percent of total revenue2%, and the cumulative proportion of advertising and sales of charging treasure revenue is only 277%。In the face of the high share of partners, shared charging treasure enterprises can only drive revenue growth by raising prices.
The sharing economy is nothing more than a capital business
Behind the relatively low level of shared charging treasure back then, it was essentially the same way that Internet companies burned money for users and market share.
Around 2017, the Internet traffic dividend gradually dissipated, the cost of customer acquisition increased, and it was difficult to create a super app or mini program, but there is still too much to dig into offline traffic. In the scenario of sharing power banks, the relatively fragmented and scattered offline traffic is aggregated to form a closed loop of offline and online traffic, tap the deeper value of users, and then explore more ways to make profits. This is also the reason why Meituan knows that the shared power bank business will be difficult to make a profit in the short term, but it has never given up.
However, from 2017 to the present, the "sharing economy", which was once highly sought after by capital, has been frustrated. With the monster charging of "the first share of shared charging treasure", its stock price has increased from 9 at the beginning of the listing$49 shares all the way to 0$5 shares, and from shared bicycles to shared umbrellas, and then shared cars, shared electric vehicles and other sharing mode platforms of thunderstorms, shutdowns, have made the capital market realize that if the sharing economy wants to really run through, it still needs long-term exploration.
Source: Xueqiu.
At the same time, Internet traffic has completely peaked, enterprises have pursued cost reduction and efficiency increase, and industry valuation has gradually changed from revenue-driven growth to revenue-driven and profit-driven growth. Not only that, the changes in the external market environment in 2023 will also make the capital market face the practical dilemma of difficulty in financing and exit.
According to CVSOURCE's investment data, the number of VC PE investment cases in 2023 will be 8,534, a year-on-year decrease of 12%, and the scale of investment cases will be US$167.5 billion, an increase of 8% year-on-year. The cold winter of the market is superimposed on the stricter supervision, and the capital is becoming more and more cautious. At the same time, capital has also turned its attention to long-term tracks such as new energy and hard technology.
Source: CVSOURCE projection data.
Under the pressure of various realities, shared charging treasure companies are facing the pressure of capital withdrawal or business cut. Once the capital is withdrawn or the parent company is no longer "transfused", it has to face a serious cash flow constraint for the company. Based on this, the shared charging treasure can only run through the profit model as soon as possible through the price increase, and tell the "new" shared charging treasure story to the capital market or the parent company behind it, so as to reduce the pressure.
But the chaos caused by the price increase, as well as the intensification of user dissatisfaction, does it mean that the shared charging treasure is really short-lived?
In fact, iResearch's "2023 China Shared Charging Treasure Industry Research Report" shows that the market size of the shared charging treasure industry will increase to 16.8 billion in 2023 and will exceed 70 billion in 2028.
It's just that before the market scale ushers in the real expansion, how to explore a richer revenue model, further improve the quality of service, and achieve a balance between the best and the service experience, still need to be constantly thinking and exploring by power bank companies.
This article is based on publicly available information and is for informational purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice.