In just five years, ofo bike-sharing has gone from being all the rage to being neglected, even because of the deposit problem, so that some users will be indignant when they talk about it now.
Ofo bike-sharing is a bicycle travel platform without piles, which was originally established to solve the problem of "the last mile of the city".
Since the project started in June, 20 15, ofo bike-sharing has invested100,000 bicycles, and the market is oriented at home and abroad, which has provided more than 4 billion trips for more than 200 million users in 20 countries around the world. The rapid development of its business also proves that "* * * enjoys the bicycle economy" is the general trend.
Although pigs can fly when standing on the tuyere, the life cycle of ofo bike-sharing only lasts for five years. In 20 19, Xiaohuangche went bankrupt and its founder left. Up to now,160,000 people have not returned the deposit 199 yuan. What is even more irritating is that some users said that users who have not refunded the deposit can no longer check their deposit refund progress on the bicycle App of ofo * * * *. Does this mean that users who have not refunded the deposit will never get this 199 yuan?
First, the entrepreneurial story of ofo founder Dai Wei
Dai Wei, Master of Economics in Peking University, studied in the Finance Department of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. In addition, his father is also an important cadre of central enterprises, and founded the brand ofo with the aura of Kochi and Gao Qian.
At first, ofo was not positioned to enjoy a bicycle platform, but to travel by bicycle. Because Dai Wei graduated from undergraduate course and went to teach in Qinghai for one year. During this period, he cycled to and from the county seat and town every weekend. Riding showed him the magnificent mountains and rivers in Qinghai, so he fell in love with cycling.
After teaching, Dai Wei returned to Beijing and founded a cycling brand ofo with his friend. After starting a business for a while, when there were only 400 pieces left on ofo's book, Dai Wei had to admit that cycling was too expensive.
Then from 2065438 to June 2005, ofo began to change direction and enjoy riding, and announced its vision: only connect cars, not produce cars. Four months later, ofo's single-day order in Peking University exceeded 3,000, which also made Dai Wei see the huge demand for bicycles on campus.
In June 5438+the following year 10, ofo received the first round investment of Jinshajiang Venture Capital:100000 yuan, which was the first investment since ofo was founded. According to Dai Wei, "After getting the investment, he and Zhang, the co-founder of ofo, lamented on the fence of the third phase of Guomao, and had never seen so much money."
Half a year later, ofo and competitor mobike became the hottest entrepreneurial projects in the second half of 20 16. At the same time, in the next four months, ofo successively completed four rounds of financing. Until 20 18, the accumulated financing amount of ofo exceeded $4 billion.
But the ebb and flow of the tide, once brilliant, will now be how lonely. At the end of 20 18, ofo's capital chain was broken, and 500 million people in arrears with suppliers queued to refund the deposit. At this point, Dai Wei had already escaped.
Second, bike-sharing is heavily in debt.
From $4 billion in financing to $500 million in arrears to suppliers, 65.438+0.6 million people lined up to refund the deposit. Next, let's analyze what led to the ending of ofo today.
1, caused by capital monopoly
As can be seen from the above description, why ofo can quickly occupy the market and become the leader of the bicycle industry is because of the promotion of capital. The seemingly competition between enterprises in the commercial market is actually a game of capital, and the reason why ofo lost Huarong Road is actually without capital support.
At that time, Didi invested in Green Orange Bicycle, Ant Financial invested in Harrow Bicycle, Meituan invested in mobike, and only ofo insisted on independent operation.
Faced with the withdrawal of capital and the expanding market in the early stage, it is difficult for ofo to survive on its own business.
2. The bicycle damage rate is high, and the later maintenance cost is high.
* * * The concept of enjoying a bicycle is beautiful, but the reality is that the small yellow cars that can be seen everywhere on the street are damaged, and the abandoned small yellow cars are piled up like mountains.
These are all due to the extremely high damage rate of the small yellow car, which leads to high scrap rate and high maintenance cost in the later period.
The cost of a small yellow car is 200 yuan, 50 points for each ride. Suppose everyone rides 2-3 times a day, that day is 1.50 yuan, and it will take more than 3 months to get back to the capital. And a small yellow car may need to be repaired or even scrapped within three months.
3, the early expansion is too fast, leading to late failure.
According to normal business logic, expansion is based on the profitability and sufficiency of the project, and it is slow and steady. In the early stage of ofo, it is purely burning money to open the market, which requires very high funds. Once the capital chain breaks, problems will arise.
This may be the way to play in the current Internet business market. Brands are not accumulated slowly, but are piled up by money. In the commercial market, consumers have also lost the right to choose actively, so they can only accept passively, because all we can see is capital choice.
Three. Concluding remarks
The commercial market is unpredictable. Although ofo was pulled down from the altar as a result of many factors, as a responsible enterprise, isn't it the first to be responsible to users? However, the situation has developed to the point that consumers need to take the initiative to protect their rights.
There are 500 million people in arrears with suppliers, and 65.438+0.6 million people queue up to refund the deposit, but the founder has escaped. This result is really not what we want to see.
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