Recently, due to special circumstances, it is particularly difficult to take a taxi online. Not only the frequent price increase 1.3 times or even twice, but also the dispatching fee. Originally, it was only considered to be a special case at that time. However, a similar situation has appeared for several days. The fare increase of the network car has been very obvious, whether it is during peak hours or normal hours. Recently, according to china national radio's News Horizon, Beijingers recently began to focus on personal social media and complain about the taxi problem. It has been found that it has become very difficult to take a taxi through platforms such as Didi in the morning and evening peak hours, even in many traditional off-peak hours. To increase the probability of successful taxi call, it is often necessary to increase the fare. This confuses many people.
In fact, many passengers in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and other places are feeling one thing, that is, it is difficult to take a taxi again. So, I can't help but have a question. Why can't I start at once?
First, why is it so difficult to take a taxi?
At present, there are many opinions on the Internet, which are basically criticizing Didi for taking a taxi. Among them, the most popular is of course conspiracy theory. This view holds that due to the high market concentration of the online car rental market, some platforms have formed a de facto monopoly, and anyone can increase the price at will. The order cancellation rules are even more flawed. The so-called scheduling fee of the platform is almost the extra income of the platform, not the driver's, so this matter is completely monopoly. Some former Uber employees came out to claim that Didi and other online car scheduling platforms had serious mechanism problems, which led to vicious competition, which eventually led drivers to choose only the reason to increase their orders.
Therefore, Didi has become the target of public criticism because of monopoly. Are these problems really due to monopoly? The author thinks it is possible, because in order to increase monopoly profits after monopoly, coupled with the gambling agreement of venture capital, many enterprises will choose to increase their income by raising prices and oppressing consumers. However, the author believes that Didi is undoubtedly digging its own grave, because everyone is a price-sensitive customer, and this way of fare increase is actually unwise.
Therefore, the author's more tendentious opinions are given by some online car drivers and Didi officials. According to the official data of Didi, the data seen in the background is often because the driver went home early this year and the capacity decreased. The number of drivers on Didi Online is on the decline. The marked data shows that the number of drivers on Didi Online has dropped by 25% or more in many cities, but at the same time, the number of people traveling during the Spring Festival has surged, and travel orders have increased by more than 30% than usual, thus taking a taxi.
At the same time, a lot of data also points to the new online car rental policies in various places. Due to the increasingly strict new policy of online car rental in various places, the number of online car rentals that can provide services has decreased significantly, which is not obvious at ordinary times. However, during the peak period in Spring Festival travel rush, this decrease in supply directly leads to the difficulty in bargaining online car rental. The reason why Didi taxi is called "Didi robbery" by consumers is the same result of two reasons.
Second, the existence of online car rental * * * economic roots
A long time ago, when the * * * enjoyment economy just appeared, the author once suggested that * * * enjoyment economy is convenient for our daily life, but it has the root of disadvantages. This disadvantage exists not only in the online car ride such as Didi taxi, but also in the links involving * * * to enjoy the economy such as bicycle and Airbnb. The author summarizes this problem as: the contradiction between supply and demand in time and space, and the restriction of policy regulation.
What exactly is this question? We can observe several remarkable phenomena:
Phenomenon 1: Online car-calling platforms, such as Didi taxi, Shenzhou special car, easy-to-use car, etc., all exist. During rush hours, there are too many drivers to find jobs, but this problem is more obvious on holidays. On traditional holidays in China, it is basically hard to find a car.
Phenomenon 2: * * * In places where bicycle demand is high, communities, etc., no cars can be found. However, in places with less traffic such as office buildings, bicycles are seriously crowded. There are even hundreds of bicycles in some places, but in some places you can't find a car for three or five kilometers.
Phenomenon 3: There are many B&Bs in short rent, but many tourist attractions can be seen everywhere in the off-season, but people who do B&Bs on holidays no longer operate, resulting in no place to live.
These three phenomena all point to the same root in * * *. Whether it is taxis, bicycles or accommodation, to some extent, it is not a commodity that can be completely regulated by the market, and there are problems of one kind or another. These problems mainly focus on the following points:
First, use the cyclical characteristics of demand. People who use * * * to enjoy economic products do not have a balanced transaction like other Internet products. Many times there are obvious peaks and valleys, but enjoying the economic supply is just the opposite. There is a significant period difference between these two periods. When you have the greatest demand, it is often the time when you have the least supply. Take online car rental as an example. Some friends and authors of the author said that it was rainy before. Or during peak hours, the online car platform will stimulate online car drivers to increase supply in the form of increasing subsidies. However, with the reduction of the platform burning money, this measure gradually disappeared. Once there are no targeted measures to iron out peaks and valleys, this periodic mismatch between supply and demand will be very serious.
Second, the space is seriously mismatched. People who use online car rental or other people who enjoy the economy often find that online car rental is fun in some places, such as densely populated areas, but it is difficult to find the shadow of online car rental in some business districts. This is because a large number of car owners will choose to take orders near their homes, and some business districts or business districts with large demand have become blind spots that no one wants to go because they are prone to traffic jams. Although some mechanisms can solve some problems, this blind spot of spatial mismatch always exists.
Third, policy constraints have increased. In the early stage of its development, most policies and regulations will not have a great impact on the enjoyment economy. But with its development, more and more policy norms will gradually emerge. Although policy norms play a great role in the benign development of the market, they will also affect the user experience of consumers in some ways. If standardization is strong, it will even lead to a large number of suppliers who meet the requirements, and the final result is a cliff-like decline in user experience.
* * * The problem of enjoying the economy is far from being solved by simply increasing supply. We should find the way of business model from the root. Only in this way can "Didi taxi" stop being "Didi robbery".
Viewing Jiang Han, the official account of World WeChat from an economic perspective ID: jianghanwiew