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Recently, shared bicycles have increased in price in many places. Hellobike, Didi Qingju and other shared bicycles have raised their prices in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Wuhan and other places, with the charging standard adjusted from 1.5 yuan for the first 15 minutes on weekdays to 1.5 yuan for the first 10 minutes, and the starting fee for weekends and holidays has also been adjusted from 1.8 yuan for the first 15 minutes to 1.8 yuan for the first 10 minutes, and 1 yuan for the last 15 minutes.

As soon as the news came out, it sparked heated discussions among netizens, and many even expressed dissatisfaction, believing that the price increase has increased the burden of life. One netizen did the math and found that it takes half an hour to take a bus or ride a shared bike, and the bus costs 2 yuan, while riding a shared bike costs 3.5 yuan. If you choose to go out on holidays, it will be even more expensive.

Currently, only a few shared bicycle brands are still operating in the market. Meituan, Didi, and Hellobike account for more than 95% of the shared bicycle market share, forming a "three-legged tripod" situation. In order to achieve profitability, shared bicycle companies bid farewell to price wars and gradually raised pricing standards.

Over the past five years, the price of a one-hour ride for each brand has basically increased five or six times, and the question of "riding a shared bike for commuting may not be as cost-effective as taking the bus" has become increasingly strong. Shared bike companies that choose to raise prices will inevitably face consumer sentiment, or even abandonment. But what is even more difficult to face is how to solve the problem of profitability in the future?

Recently, the price of shared bicycles has increased in many places. Source: Visual China

More expensive than taking the subway?

"I haven't ridden a shared bike for a long time. Today I rode 1 kilometer and found that it cost 3.5 yuan." Zhang Lei, a user from Chengdu, was shocked. He couldn't understand why shared bikes were so economical before and became so expensive now? But the impact on him is clear. He would rather walk than ride a bike for short distances.

As a student, Yang Le was "heartbroken". In the past, every time he went out of school, he liked to ride a shared bike, which was convenient and cheap to buy food or take the subway. This time, he found that the price of shared bikes had not only increased, but also was divided into weekdays and holidays. When locking the bike, he even heard a girl next to him complain, "It cost 6 yuan to ride here, but it's better to take the subway."

It is understood that the charging standard of Chengdu Metro mainly adopts the mileage pricing system, with a starting price of 2 yuan for 4 kilometers. After that, according to the principle of decreasing with distance, a certain fee will be added for each additional kilometer. Specifically, within the range of 4 to 12 kilometers, 1 yuan will be added for every 4 kilometers; within the range of 12 to 24 kilometers, 1 yuan will be added for every 6 kilometers, and so on. The basic fare for Chengdu buses is 1 yuan for ordinary buses and 2 yuan for air-conditioned buses. Depending on the mileage, 0.5 yuan or 0.6 yuan will be added for every additional kilometer.

This means that for the same 1 km of road, buses and subways may only cost 2 yuan. Some netizens also said that the current oil price in most places is more than 8 yuan per liter, and riding a shared bicycle for an hour is equivalent to "riding away" more than half a liter of oil.

In comparison, the cost-effectiveness of shared bicycles has been greatly reduced. Back in 2014, with the rapid development of mobile Internet, Internet shared bicycle companies represented by Mobike and ofo came into being and expanded in a short period of time. The premise of expansion was to use investors' money to subsidize the market crazily. At that time, the sharing economy was very friendly to workers, and most of the shared bicycle charges were 0.5 yuan/half hour, or even 0.5 yuan/hour.

However, burning money is not a long-term solution. The high operating costs of shared bicycle platforms have always been a test for various companies. The entire industry is facing a reshuffle. Eventually, Mobike was sold to Meituan, Didi took over Bluegogo, ofo withdrew from the market, and Hellobike operated with difficulty.

In 2019, Meituan Bike, Didi Qingju Bike, and Hellobike began to form a "three-legged tripod". In the following year or so, shared bicycle companies that lost billions or even tens of billions began to raise prices frequently, with the starting price rising to "2 yuan/30 minutes", "1.5 yuan/30 minutes", and "1.5 yuan/15 minutes". In 2022, shared bicycle companies adjusted the prices of package cards/cycling cards to the same level, with the increase in cycling cards ranging from 40% to 50%.

During the Qingming Festival this year, the price of a single ride on Meituan Bike in Shanghai increased from 1.5 yuan/15 minutes to 1.8 yuan/15 minutes, with an additional 1 yuan for every 15 minutes. At the same time, Hellobike also raised its holiday prices in some cities, and its price increase was the same as that of Meituan Bike.

Cui Lili, executive director of the Electronic Commerce Research Institute of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told China News Weekly that it is the peak travel season for summer vacations. The cities that have seen price increases, such as Chengdu and Guangzhou, are popular destinations, and the number of tourists or students riding shared bikes in these cities may increase. In this case, operating costs, hardware costs, and various city management costs will increase, and the cost of a single use will inevitably increase. Cui Lili believes that shared bike companies still hope to increase prices to force users to consume on a monthly or annual basis, thereby increasing stable income and improving riding stickiness.

"Tentative" price increase

Are the continuous price increases making workers lose their freedom to ride shared bikes? A shared bike practitioner believes that the price increase of shared bikes actually affects a limited number of users, as the majority of users on the platform have monthly or annual membership cards.

However, every price increase of shared bicycles will cause considerable controversy, because shared bicycles have assumed the role of a certain basic transportation facility in the city.

Taking Beijing as an example, data from the Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission showed that in 2023, the number of shared bicycle rides in Beijing reached 1.088 billion, a record high, with an average daily ride volume of 3.1157 million, an increase of 9.04% year-on-year in 2022.

Although he owns a private car, Beijing user Gao Fan still chooses to ride a shared bike to commute every day. The commuting distance is about 10 kilometers, which not only exercises the body but also avoids congestion. He said that after trying driving, taking the bus and riding a shared bike, he finally chose a shared bike as his commuting tool, "This is because different travel modes give me different feelings, and I prefer comfortable and relaxed riding."

The 2023 China Major Cities Shared Bike/Motorcycle Riding Report also shows that in cities with more than 500 kilometers of rail mileage, the "shared riding + rail" service commuting is significantly higher than in other cities. The peak riding orders of shared bicycles around the rails accounted for 31%, and the higher the rail mileage, the higher the proportion. The peak riding orders in cities with more than 500 kilometers of rails accounted for 39%, which was 14% higher than that in cities with less than 300 kilometers of rails.

In less than a decade, shared bikes have become an integral part of public life. The report also mentioned that users are spending more time on shared bikes. In 2022, the single ride time on a shared bike was 11.7 minutes, an increase of 0.9 minutes from 2021. Cities with increases of more than 1.5 minutes included Chengdu (11.4 minutes), Beijing (11.4 minutes) and Jinan (12.8 minutes).

Liu Daizong, chief representative of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy in East Asia, pointed out that shared bikes are a very suitable mode of transportation for China, which has a high population density. China's urbanization is developing rapidly. During the development process, the transportation system, including buses and subways, has more or less problems, and the efficiency needs to be improved. Shared bikes are a mode of transportation that survives through market competition and is recognized by consumers.

"For shared bicycle companies, price increases are a market choice, based on optimism about the market." He also believes that China's bicycle travel share rate is currently over 10%, while the car travel share rate in developed countries is generally over 30%, and some even over 40%. In the future, the proportion of bicycle travel systems in the overall transportation system will be even higher, which gives shared bicycles great room for development.

However, there are still many unknowns as to whether this strategy of taking small steps and "tentative" price increases over the years can reach the limit of what users can bear and whether it can be accepted by the market.

For many years, shared bicycle companies have been facing profitability problems, and serious losses have even made many companies afraid to deploy more bicycles. Finding a profit balance point may be the goal of shared bicycle companies to increase prices, but price increases alone are far from enough.

Reporter: Meng Qian