{"id":16077,"date":"2016-11-17T17:22:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T22:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/will-two-startups-shake-up-chinas-traditional-bike-business-a-new-round-of-ride-hailing-fight-in-china\/"},"modified":"2016-11-17T17:24:42","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T22:24:42","slug":"will-two-startups-shake-up-chinas-traditional-bike-business-a-new-round-of-ride-hailing-fight-in-china","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/will-two-startups-shake-up-chinas-traditional-bike-business-a-new-round-of-ride-hailing-fight-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Will two startups shake up China\u2019s traditional bike business \u2013 a new round of ride-hailing fight in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Context of ride-hailing business and unaddressed pain points:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today on Beijing and Shanghai\u2019s streets, you can see a battle between orange and yellow bicycles. Two tech company-backed startups are trying to capitalize on a return from a very traditional two wheeled commodity \u2013 bicycle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

While ride-hailing industry has been fast growing in the past years and created new generation of giant tech companies like Didi (if you still remember that recently Uber sold its China business to Didi and gave up Chinese market), there are still some unaddressed pain points for \u201clast-mile\u201d transportation. Citizens normally feel uneconomic to ask for an Uber to a place only 1-3 miles away, but they are also hesitated to walk all the way there. Besides, it\u2019s always painful to get a car during peak traffic hours in Beijing or Shanghai, no matter whether you have ride-hailing apps on your mobile or not. While some local governments provide bicycle services to ease crowding on roads and subways, citizens still feel inconvenient as they must pick and return bicycles at certain bike stations, which are located sparsely in cities.<\/p>\n

Unique business model and recent success of two startup companies:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two Chinese startups, Mobike <\/strong>and Ofo<\/strong>, have emerged recently to address these pain points.<\/p>\n

With limited sign-up fee on mobile app, you can easily become a Mobike (featured with orange bicycles) or Ofo (yellow) member. Every time you need a bike, the app provides a map of nearby bikes (normally within hundreds of meters) and guides you directly to them (similar to Google Map). With a built-in GPS, the bikes don\u2019t require docking at a specific station and can be left anywhere as you want. After using the bike, customers can pay for the ride via app, which is linked with popular online payment apps like Alipay or Wechat Wallet.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also convenient for bicycle operators. An alarm alerts the operator if a bike is moved without being unlocked, so one operator can monitor thousands of bikes simultaneously. In addition, Mobike\u2019s bicycles are custom-made with reinforced structure, which has expected life of more than five years. [1]<\/p>\n

Currently, revenue comes from upfront sign-up fee and charges on bicycle use. Compared with Uber, riding bikes is a much cheaper choice. Mobike caters to the white-collar crowd, who can afford its smart GPS locks and the nearly $50 deposit. Ofo primarily goes after students, with rates for its yellow bikes as low as seven U.S. cents an hour and deposits of $13. [2]<\/p>\n

Both Mobike and Ofo have attracted thousands of customers in a couple of months with very low customer acquisition costs, which proves that both companies successfully address citizens\u2019 pain points. Detailed operation numbers are not disclosed yet, but investment veterans consistently believe that customer base is growing exponentially.<\/p>\n

Like many startups, for now neither company is earning money, yet capital keeps flowing in: in October, Mobike received $110M investment in a Series C round backed by Sequoia Capital, Tencent, Hillhouse Capital and Warburg Pincus, while Ofo attracted $130M investment led by Didi and Xiaomi. [3]<\/p>\n

Additional steps to encounter challenges:<\/strong><\/p>\n

First challenge is conflict between low cost and rapid expansion. While combined fleet has surpassed 100K very quickly, people doubt whether cost is also soaring. Mobike designs and manufactures its own bicycles, which is a fairly asset-heavy model with significant up-front capex investment, and might slow down Mobike\u2019s expansion. Ofo outsources bike production and adopts low quality bikes. While cost is low, Ofo has to recycle and refurbish bikes frequently as they can be damaged easily, which brings increasing maintenance expense. Given fierce competitive environment in China, both fast expansion speed and low-level manageable cost are the keys to success. I would suggest both Mobike and Ofo to design a new bike with features between their current bike offerings: good-enough quality at reasonable cost level.<\/p>\n

Secondly, both startups face challenge of frequent bike thefts, as neither uses the docking stations of traditional bike-sharing plans around the world and GPS system could potentially be damaged. Bike operators sometimes have to recover bikes that ended up in the middle of a river or on someone\u2019s private balcony. To address this issue, both companies should improve bike tracking & lock system, encourage good customer behaviors and punish bad ones. It is also essential to leverage local police resources to help retrieve lost bikes and punish bike thefts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Word count: 727 words<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] Tom Mackenzie, Yuan Gao, Brad Stone and Lulu Chen, \u201c25-Year-Old\u2019s $500 Million Startup Fuels China Bike-Share Battle\u201d, Bloomberg Technology, Oct 30 2016: https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/ articles\/2016-10-30\/uber-s-bruising-battle-in-china-is-being-refought-with-bicycles<\/p>\n

[2] Liyan Qi and Alyssa Abkowitz, \u201cChinese Startups Saddle Up for Bike-Sharing Battle\u201d, The Wall Street Journal, Oct 25 2016: http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/chinese-startups-saddle-up-for-bike-sharing-battle-1477392508<\/p>\n

[3] Tomas S. Noda, \u201cChina: Bike-sharing app ofo raises $130m in Series C round\u201d, DealStreetAsia, Oct 12 2016: http:\/\/www.dealstreetasia.com\/stories\/china-bike-sharing-app-ofo-raises-130m-in-series-c-round-55282\/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As China\u2019s ride-hailing industry faces tougher regulations, tech companies and VCs are seeking for opportunities in a two-wheeled business instead of four<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2183,"featured_media":16078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[436,154,2195,1194],"class_list":["post-16077","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bicycle","category-china","category-ride-sharing","category-shared-economy"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/digitization-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"\nWill two startups shake up China\u2019s traditional bike business \u2013 a new round of ride-hailing fight in China - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/will-two-startups-shake-up-chinas-traditional-bike-business-a-new-round-of-ride-hailing-fight-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will two startups shake up China\u2019s traditional bike business \u2013 a new round of ride-hailing fight in China - 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